Syria: Assad appoints war criminals to senior state positions

Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad has appointed a number of well- known war crimes perpetrators to senior positions in his government and its security agencies.

Informed opposition sources, and pro-regime media outlets reported that Al- Assad appointed Qahtan Khalil, known as the “Butcher of Daraya,” as director of the Air Force Intelligence Department, succeeding Ghassan Ismail, who has held the position since July 2019.

The Air Force Intelligence is considered the most cruel and brutal security apparatus in suppressing the Syrians since its establishment by Hafiz Al-Assad, the current president’s father, in the 1970s.

Khalil earned his notorious nickname as a result of his direct responsibility for a massacre committed in Daraya in 2012, in which hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed and injured.

Khalil served as Deputy Director of the Air Force Intelligence Department when it was headed by Jamil Al-Hassan, but in October 2019, Al-Assad appointed him head of the Security Committee in southern Syria, after promoting him in 2018 to the rank of Major General.

In 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on Khalil, under the Caesar Act which targeted military and security figures in Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.

Al-Assad also appointed other documented perpetrators of massacres including Brigadier General Thaer Ahmed Ajeeb, who became chief of staff of the 3rd Armoured Division, Major General Akram Ibrahim Suleiman, who became commander of the 24th Air Defence Division, and Major General Pilot Adel Jadallah Qaysar as chief of staff of the Air Force, and Major General Pilot Tawfiq Ahmed Khaddour as commander of the Air Force and Air Defence.

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