The Syrian regime replaced on Sunday security chiefs at the directorates of air intelligence, political security, criminal security and state security.
Reports said the main shake-up included the removal of Jamil Hassan, who headed the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate since 2009 and was dubbed as the “godfather of barrels.”
Replacing Hassan, the Syrian regime appointed Maj. Gen. Ghassan Ismail, who was his deputy.
The Assad regime rarely issues official reports about decisions related to changes of military chiefs and intelligence apparatuses, only sending internal memos concerning those appointments, which are later published by news pages close to the regime.
Hassan was one of the most important officers in Syria, accused of committing a range of crimes, including the use of barrel bombings.
Last March, the United States has asked Lebanon to extradite the chief of Syria's Air Force Intelligence Directorate to Germany.
A State Department statement said Hassan is “notorious for his alleged involvement in the extensive use of torture in Syrian detention centers. The German federal prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against the general in June 2018 for committing crimes against humanity based on a complaint filed by Syrian refugees residing in Germany.”
Separately, the US special representative on Syria, James Jeffrey pushed Germany on Sunday to ramp up its military involvement in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria militant group.
Jeffrey called on Germany to send military trainers, logistics specialists and technicians to help the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against ISIS in northern Syria as Washington looks to withdraw from the region.
"We want ground troops from Germany to partially replace our soldiers," Jeffrey said in an interview with the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency and the weekly Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Meanwhile, opposition sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Tanf base in the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian corner has currently opened its doors for accepting affiliations from residents.
The sources said that affiliates would be trained in Jordanian camps.
