Internal Security in Syria detained several relatives of Amjad Youssef, the main suspect in carrying out the Tadamon massacre in Damascus (Syria) in 2013, according to the Syrian official news agency, SANA.
The media office at the Syrian Interior Ministry confirmed the arrest to Enab Baladi, without providing further details.
SANA, citing an unnamed source, reported that the arrests included Youssef’s father and other individuals, one day after the suspect was arrested at his home in rural Hama.
The security source told the agency that the arrests were made on suspicion that those individuals were involved in covering up Youssef’s disappearance during the past period.
A source at the Interior Ministry told Enab Baladi on Friday that Internal Security had also arrested Amjad Youssef’s wife.
The arrest came after the Syrian Interior Ministry detained Amjad Youssef, the main suspect in committing the Tadamon massacre in Damascus, on April 24.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Hama reported that Youssef was arrested in his village of Naba al-Tayeb, which belongs to the Suqaylabiyah area in rural Hama.
A video showed Internal Security in Syria arresting Amjad Youssef, the perpetrator of the Tadamon massacre.
Youssef is known as one of the perpetrators of the “Tadamon neighborhood” massacre in Damascus in 2013.
He appeared in a video recording of an operation during the massacre, carrying out the field execution of 41 people and burying them in a mass grave.
He is also accused of carrying out about 12 other mass killing operations.
Other Officials Linked to the Massacre Arrested
The Interior Ministry had announced the arrest of officials involved in the Tadamon massacre on February 17, 2025.
At the time, Damascus Security Director Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Rahman al-Dabbagh told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that security agencies had arrested “one of the leading criminals responsible for the Tadamon massacre in Damascus 12 years ago.”
He added that preliminary investigations led security authorities to several people who participated in the massacre, and that two of them were arrested.
What Was the Tadamon Massacre?
An investigation by The Guardian revealed information about a massacre committed by the forces of the deposed Syrian regime on April 16, 2013, in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus, which resulted in the killing of 41 people and their burial in a mass grave.
The investigation included a video showing dozens of people being shot and buried in a mass grave, before their bodies were burned by members of the Syrian regime, according to the investigation published by the British newspaper on April 27, 2022.
The investigation was based on documents and testimonies provided by researchers Annsar Shahhoud and Professor Ugur Umit Ungor, from the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam, citing a former soldier in the regime forces who managed to obtain the video.
The Guardian reported in October 2022 that Amjad Youssef, the most prominent official responsible for the Tadamon massacre, was still serving at the time at a military base near Damascus. He was also accused by his colleagues of carrying out around 12 other mass killings.
The regime said at the time that the recording showing the Tadamon massacre was fabricated.
The journalists who conducted the investigation, Shahhoud and Professor Ugur Umit Ungor, relied on gathering the stories of survivors and their families, and speaking to the perpetrators of the violations themselves. They did so by creating a Facebook account for Shahhoud that carried her personal photo, but used the pseudonym “Anna,” after she learned that officers and officials in the regime’s ranks widely used the platform.
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