US designates Syrian military officer for role in Tadamon massacre

Amjad Yousef accused of killing dozens of people in 2013 massacre

Displaced Syrians living in war-damaged buildings in the rebel-held northern city of Raqqa. AFP

The US State Department has designated a Syrian military intelligence official who is said to have been responsible for executing 41 people in a Damascus suburb in April 2013.

Last year, video footage surfaced of Amjad Yousef, a member of Syria’s feared Branch 227 military intelligence unit, executing dozens of blindfolded people.

In the video, he can be seen telling the blindfolded people to run before opening fire on them. Their bodies are then dumped in a large pit.

“Video evidence of these murders, which were carried out coldly and methodically, was first publicly shared in 2022 after a long and comprehensive investigation by independent researchers,” the State Department said in a release.

“Today, we are taking action to promote accountability for this atrocity.”

Under the designation, Mr Yousef and his immediate family will not be allowed to enter the US.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said that Mr Yousef had been detained by the regime in May last year, but The Guardian reported in October that he has since been seen working at a military base outside Damascus.

The UN estimates that more than 306,000 civilians have been killed during the Syrian civil war, which has now dragged on for 12 years.

The Syrian refugee crisis remains the largest in the world, with more than 13 million people displaced and about 5.6 million registered as refugees, according to UN figures.

The country’s suffering has been compounded by the recent earthquake that struck southern Turkey and north-western Syria.