Syrian security forces have arrested a distant cousin of former president Bashar Al Assad who specialised in armed robbery and abduction, the interior ministry announced on Thursday.
Numair Al Assad, brother of former militia leader Waseem Al Assad, was captured along with three members of his gang in Qerdaha, the ministry said. Qerdaha, near the Mediterranean coast, is the home area of the Assad family, who ruled Syria for 53 years.
It was the second arrest of a member of the former ruling family since it was toppled at the end of last year by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) rebel group. In the past several months, the authorities have captured hundreds of former officials and security operatives, but not the regime's leading figures, most of whom are in Russia.
“The criminal had used his relation to the head of the bygone regime to form and manage organised terrorist networks involved in murder, abductions, and armed robbery in several governorates,” the ministry said.
It said the arrest occurred after Numair Al Assad's gang killed a man and tried to abduct a child at a petrol station in Qerdaha. Syria TV reported that drones with thermal sensors were used to pursue the group through a forest.
Numair Al Assad acquired a reputation during the 2011 to 2024 civil war for robbing petrol stations. However, he fell out with the regime in the last two years of the war. His brother Wassim, who was captured in June, was a militia leader loyal to Bashar Al Assad.
Numair Al Assad also ran narcotics factories and was involved in attacks on security forces on the coast in March, according to the interior ministry. Back then government forces and allied militias swept the area in a campaign against regime remnants. Pro-government forces killed hundreds of Alawite civilians in the campaign.
Bashar Al Assad was granted asylum by Russia as his regime collapsed last year. New Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, a former rebel fighter, visited Moscow on Wednesday on his first official trip to the country that forcefully backed the Assad regime during the civil war.
Syrian authorities last month issued an arrest warrant for Bashar Al Assad, but Mr Al Shara's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin produced no signs that Moscow would be willing to hand him over.
