Damascus \u2013 Action Group<\/p>\n
Security forces in Damascus arrested Hassan al-Barni, a former commander in the National Defense Forces militia, in the al-Rawda neighborhood of the al-Zahra district. He is accused of involvement in war crimes and human rights abuses in the al-Tadamon neighborhood, south of Damascus, during the years of conflict.
\nSecurity sources reported that the initial investigations into al-Barni concern his suspected leadership roles in operations targeting civilians, as well as accusations related to the al-Tadamon massacre, one of the most prominent documented massacres in Damascus during the rule of the former regime.
\nAccording to the same sources, the charges against him also include running a network that extorted money and sexually exploited civilians, leveraging his influence within armed groups affiliated with the former regime before its fall in December 2024.
\nThis arrest comes amidst ongoing legal proceedings targeting former military and security figures accused of committing human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. These proceedings coincide with growing calls from human rights organizations to reveal the fate of victims and hold those responsible for the violations that have occurred in Syria over the past years accountable.
\nThe \u201cNational Defense\u201d militia played a prominent role as an auxiliary force to the former Syrian army, and its name was associated with widespread violations in a number of Syrian regions, including neighborhoods in Damascus and its countryside, according to human rights reports and survivor testimonies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Damascus \u2013 Action Group Security forces in Damascus arrested Hassan al-Barni, a former commander in the National Defense Forces militia, in the al-Rawda neighborhood of the al-Zahra district. He is accused of involvement in war crimes and human rights abuses in the al-Tadamon neighborhood, south of Damascus, during the years of conflict. Security sources reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":119774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5936,171],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-119773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-palestinians-in-syria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119775,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119773\/revisions\/119775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.org.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}