Syria’s new leaders vow punishment for atrocities under Assad
DAMASCUS, Syria — The rebel alliance that overthrew the Assad government in Syria vowed Tuesday to hunt down and punish senior officials of the previous regime who are implicated in torture and other abuses, but said rank-and-file conscripted soldiers would receive amnesty.
The leader of the rebel force that stormed into the Syrian capital, Damascus, over the weekend issued statements suggesting he was seeking to strike a balance between retribution and filling the power vacuum left after President Bashar Assad fled to Russia and the Syrian government disintegrated.
“We will not relent in holding accountable the criminals, murderers and security and military officers involved in torturing the Syrian people,” the rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. He heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the most powerful of the armed factions that toppled Assad.
Al-Sharaa said the rebel group would soon announce “List No. 1,” which will contain senior figures “implicated in the torture of the Syrian people.” The group will also issue rewards to those who provide information about officials who took part in war crimes, he said.
The announcement comes at a time of jubilation and great uncertainty in Syria, with foreign powers jockeying for advantage in the country as the rebel leadership seeks to assert itself.
Israel said Tuesday that it had destroyed Syria’s navy and other military assets in overnight airstrikes, arguing that it needed to keep them out of the hands of militants.
Turkey — which backed militias fighting the Assad regime — and another Syrian rebel ally group have seized on the power vacuum, mounting an offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. Armed Syrian groups with competing interests are also battling for territory and power within the country.
Mohammed al-Bashir, a rebel leader affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, announced Tuesday in a brief address on Syrian television that he was assuming the role of caretaker prime minister until March 1. A little-known figure in most of the country, al-Bashir previously served as the head of the administration in rebel-held territory in the northwest.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2024 The New York Times Company
