'Amjad Youssef involved in killing Dr. Al-Abbasi's 6 children': Syria

The Syrian Interior Ministry announced Saturday the involvement of Amjad Youssef, the perpetrator of the Tadamon neighborhood massacre in Damascus, in the death of Dr. Rania Al-Abbasi's six children

"As part of the ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Dr. Rania Al-Abbasi's children, the Ministry of Interior, through its interrogations of several detainees, has obtained information and evidence indicating that the children were killed by groups and militias affiliated with the former regime," it said in a statement. "The National Commission for Missing Persons also shared videos and information related to the case with the Interior Ministry, which contributed to supporting the investigation and strengthening the available evidence."

The ministry explained that initial investigations revealed "the involvement of Amjad Youssef in this crime, while the competent authorities are continuing to complete the investigations, gather evidence, and pursue the remaining potential perpetrators, in preparation for taking the necessary legal measures against them."

Youssef was arrested last April, and Syrians expressed joy at the news, demanding "just punishment" for the man they had long awaited to see behind bars after they said committed the massacre in cold blood.

Media reports said Al-Abbasi was born in 1970. She is a Syrian dentist and a former Arab and international chess champion.

She was forcibly disappeared by military intelligence, along with her husband, Abdul Rahman Yassin, and their six children. Their whereabouts remain unknown, and all information about them has been cut off since their disappearance.

Human rights reports indicate that the doctor and her family were arrested for supporting displaced Syrians who had fled from Homs (in central Syria) to Damascus.

Earlier Saturday, the Syrian National Commission for Missing Persons announced that it had documented the deaths of Al-Abbasi’s six children in the prisons of the ousted regime, after their arrest in Damascus in 2013, and had "reached reliable and corroborating findings that allow us to conclude with a high degree of certainty that the children of Dr. Rania al-Abbasi are dead."

The Tadamon case drew international attention after footage surfaced documenting the killings.

In 2022, The Guardian newspaper in the UK published footage it said had been leaked by a conscript in a pro-government militia showing members of the Assad-era Military Intelligence Branch 227 executing at least 41 people and burning their bodies.

The video showed an intelligence officer, identified as Youssef, shooting blindfolded and bound detainees.

The massacre took place April 16, 2013, when at least 41 people were killed near the Othman Mosque, and their bodies thrown into a pit, in what became one of the most widely documented atrocities of the conflict.

Seeking to pursue accountability, the current Syrian administration has repeatedly announced arrests of individuals accused of committing abuses against civilians during the 2011–2024 conflict.

In December 2024, Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia, bringing an end to the Baath Party’s decades of rule that began in 1963. A transitional administration led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa was formed in January 2025.