Syria’s new authorities have arrested in less than a week nearly 300 people, including informants, pro-regime fighters and former soldiers, in a crackdown on loyalists to ousted former president Bashar Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the official Syrian news agency, SANA, reported arrests last Thursday and Saturday targeting “Assad militia members” in Hama and Latakia provinces, where weapons and ammunition were seized. It did not provide any figures.
“In less than a week, nearly 300 people have been detained in Damascus and its suburbs, as well as in Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia and even Deir Ezzor,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of SOHR.
Among those arrested were former regime informants, pro-Iranian fighters and lower-ranking military officers accused of killings and torture, Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said some individuals, found to have been involved in sending reports to the former regime, “were arrested and instantly executed.
“This is completely unacceptable,” Abdel-Rahman added.
He was referring to social media videos showing armed men abusing detainees and even carrying out summary executions.
The security forces of the new administration launched a large-scale operation on Thursday against Assad's militias in the suburbs of Damascus and in Latakia, Tartus and Homs.
Abdel-Rahman said that “the campaign is ongoing, but no prominent figures have been arrested” except for General Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, the former head of military justice under al-Assad, who reportedly oversaw thousands of death sentences following summary trials at Saydnaya prison.
The arrests were reportedly taking place “with the cooperation of local populations,” Abdel-Rahman added.
The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led a coalition of opposition groups that entered Damascus on December 8 after a rapid offensive, forcing Assad to flee to Russia.
The move marked an end to over 50 years of the Assad family rule in Syria.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch urged the armed factions to treat all individuals, including captured fighters and former members of the Assad government and security forces, humanely and in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law standards.
Anas Khattab, the new head of General Intelligence, has pledged to overhaul the security apparatus, denouncing “the injustice and tyranny of the former regime, whose agencies sowed corruption and inflicted suffering on the people.”
