The Syrian Interior Ministry said Amjad Youssef had been hiding out in Hama province since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2024. Photo courtesy of the Syrian Interior Ministry/X
Authorities arrested a key suspect in the 2013 massacre of civilians in the Tadamon district of Damascus, Syria’s interior minister announced Friday.
Security forces arrested the former regime official, Amjad Youssef, in the Ghab plain area near Hama, where he had been hiding since the overthrow of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2024, The Guardian reported.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said Youssef had been arrested “following a carefully executed security operation.”
Khattab said Youssef was the main suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre. Video of the massacre became public in 2022, showing Syrian soldiers leading blindfolded victims to a pit where they shot them, the BBC reported.
The State Department under then-President Joe Biden blacklisted Youssef in 2023 in response to the video. Officials believed him to be directly involved in the killing of 41 people during the 2013 massacre amid Syria’s 13-year civil war.
The Human Rights Watch, after visiting the site of the slayings, said it had evidence that 288 people were killed there, including 12 children. The video was recorded by the perpetrators, who could be heard laughing amid the killings.
HRW senior researcher Hiba Zayadin said the video “shows the [former] Syrian government’s callous disregard for people’s lives.”
“This massacre is just one horrific incident in a pattern of state violence and apparent war crimes.
Syrians celebrate collapse of Assad regime
Syrians cheer and wave the national flag in the Lebanese town of Bar Elias on December 8, 2024, as they celebrate rebel fighters taking over the capital, Damascus. Photo by Fadel Itani/UPI | License Photo
