Syria: Arrest of Major General Adnan Halawa, Accused of Responsibility for the Ghouta Chemical Massacre

Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab announced that security forces have arrested Major General Adnan Aboud Halawa, who is considered one of the most prominent officers responsible for carrying out the chemical massacre in Eastern Ghouta, rural Damascus, in 2013. The minister clarified in a statement that Halawa is now in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Directorate to complete legal procedures against him.

The events of the massacre, in which Halawa is accused of involvement, date back to August 21, 2013, when areas in Eastern Ghouta were subjected to a chemical weapons attack. This horrific assault led to the martyrdom of more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children and women who suffocated in one of the most heinous war crimes.

The arrest of Major General Halawa comes within the context of a broad security campaign launched by the current authorities to pursue those involved in the crimes of the former regime. The ministry had announced a few days earlier the arrest of Amjad Youssef, known as 'the Butcher of Tadamon,' following a precise security operation carried out in the Sahl al-Ghab area in rural Hama.

It is worth noting that Major General Adnan Aboud Halawa had been on international sanctions lists for years, with the US State Department accusing him in 2022 of involvement in serious human rights violations. The sanctions included banning him and his family members from entering the United States, in addition to freezing his assets by the European Union and the United Kingdom.

In a related development, the Ministry of Interior broadcast videos showing parts of the interrogations with three pilots who were officers of the former regime. Among them was pilot Mizr Sawwan, nicknamed 'the Enemy of the Two Ghoutas,' who made sensational confessions about the mechanism of issuing aerial bombardment orders that targeted civilians for many years.

Sawwan revealed during his interrogation that military orders for bombardment were issued directly by former President Bashar al-Assad, reaching military airports via fax machines. These telegrams included precise specifications for the number of required sorties and the geographical coordinates of the targeted locations without clarifying the nature of those targets.

The arrested pilot indicated that air operations in early 2013 began to expand to include wide areas in southern Syria, specifically in Daraa and Eastern and Western Ghouta. He confirmed that some pilots enjoyed special privileges with the military command as a result of carrying out combat missions described as qualitative during that period.

Regarding the details of carrying out the raids, Sawwan explained that pilots often carried out their assigned missions randomly and without prior knowledge of the nature of the ground targets. He added that the priority was to execute the coordinates contained in the military telegrams regardless of the field results or civilian casualties.

Regarding the motives behind their continued execution of these orders despite their atrocity, Sawwan justified it by fear of physical liquidation, emphasizing that refusing any military order meant the immediate execution of the pilot and his family members. He described the situation inside military airports as being governed by intimidation and strict surveillance by security agencies.

The Ministry of Interior continues to publish regular updates on the arrests of those involved in the violations that occurred in Syria between 2011 and 2024. Official sources confirm that these actions come within the framework of seeking to achieve justice for the victims and hold accountable everyone whose hands were stained with the blood of Syrians during the years of conflict.

The bombing order came to us directly from Bashar al-Assad via fax, including the coordinates and the number of air sorties.