Syria detains Assad-era general accused of bloody crackdown on protests

What the report says

Syrian authorities said on Monday that they had detained former Major-General Mohammed Ali Durgham, an officer from the Assad era who is accused of involvement in the 1982 Hama massacre and of ordering fire on unarmed protesters in 2011. Al Jazeera reported that the arrest was announced by Syria’s Internal Security Forces and described Durgham as a senior figure in the military establishment under the former government.

According to the report, Durgham was linked to the army’s Fourth Division between 2009 and 2013, when it was commanded by Maher al-Assad, the brother of former president Bashar al-Assad. The authorities also said he began his career in the Defence Brigades during the events in Hama in 1982, a period widely associated with a major and highly lethal crackdown by the government of Hafez al-Assad. Al Jazeera noted that human rights groups and defectors have previously accused him of directing troops against demonstrators near Damascus in 2011.

The detention comes as Syria’s new authorities, led by former rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham after Bashar al-Assad was ousted in 2024, continue arresting former security and military officials. Al Jazeera said the broader effort is aimed at pursuing alleged abuses committed under the previous regime, with other recent detentions also reported by state media. The case matters because it shows how the post-Assad government is trying to address long-running demands for accountability tied to both past massacres and the 2011 uprising.