Air Force Secret Service

The Air Force Secret Service ( Arabic إدارة المخابرات الجوية Idārat al-Muchābarāt al-dschawwiyya , DMG Idārat al-muḫābarāt al-ǧawwīya ; Air Force Intelligence Directorate ) is the most powerful intelligence agency in Syria . It was founded in 1963.

tasks

The main task of this service is not the gathering of information for the Syrian Air Force , as the name might suggest. Rather, the name of the service goes back to the fact that the future President Hafiz al-Assad was the commander of the Syrian air force and, after he came to power in 1970, specifically staffed the intelligence service of his armed forces with confidants and friends in order to quickly develop it into a full intelligence service.

Known operations of the service:

• Destruction of the radical religious international organization Islamic Liberation Front " Hizb ut-Tahrir ",
• Suppression of the revolt of the Muslim Brotherhood in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s ( 1982 Hama massacre ),
• Attempted bomb attack on April 18, 1986 on an El-Al machine in London - Heathrow (so-called Hindawi affair ), which led to the severance of diplomatic relations between London and Damascus .

The head of the service had been Major General Muhammad al-Khuli for 24 years since 1963 . The importance of the service is illustrated by the fact that al-Chuli's neighboring office in the presidential palace was the Assad's office . The current head is General Ghassan Ismail (since 2019).

Previous head of the secret service

• Muhammad al-Khuli (1963–1987)
• Ibrahim Huwayji (1987-2002)
• Iz a-Din Isma'il (after 2002)
  • Deputy: Ali Mamlouk (until June 2005) ( International arrest warrant ordered by France)

• Abd al-Fattah Qudsiyah (until 2009) ( accused by the European Union (EU) and the US of being responsible for crimes against humanity and sanctioned accordingly)
• Jamil Hassan (2009–2019) (was sanctioned accordingly by the EU for “violence against the civilian population during the Syrian civil war ”); is wanted at the instigation of the Attorney General by international arrest warrant . He is charged with crimes against humanity .
  • Deputy Director: Fuad Tawil (sanctioned accordingly by the European Union for “use of force throughout Syria and intimidation and torture of demonstrators during the Syrian uprising”).
  • Investigative Director: Abdulsalam Fajer Mahmoud ( accused by Human Rights Watch of directing or committing crimes against humanity).
  • Head of Special Operations Department: Ghassan Ismail
  • Head of the Operations Department: Suhail al-Hasan
• Ghassan Ismail (since 2019)

Regional Head

• Damascus Department : Eyad Mandou (in 2012)

• Homs Department : Jawdat al-Ahmed (in 2012) (accused by Human Rights Watch of crimes against humanity).

• Daraa Division : Qusay Mihoub (in 2012) (accused by Human Rights Watch of crimes against humanity).

• Latakia Division : Suhail Al-Abdullah (in 2012) (accused by Human Rights Watch of crimes against humanity).

Paramilitary units

• Guardian of the Dawn (حراس الفجر)
  • Ararat group
  • Lions of the valley
  • Lions of Dwel'a
  • Intervention regiment
  • Lions of cherubim
    • Jobar earthquake

• Fawj Nusur Homs
• Khaybar Brigade

Web links

• “Le rapport Mehlis: la Syrie et de hauts responsables libanais officiellement impliqués dans l'assassinat de Rafic Hariri” ( Memento of January 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), esisc.org, October 21, 2005

Individual evidence

1. ^ Syria: Torture Centers Uncovered , Human Rights Watch, July 3, 2012.
2. ^ ^{A b} Rainer Hermann: Secret Services in Syria: Divide, Rule, Murder. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 26, 2011 (accessed September 16, 2012)
3. ^ "The Military-Intelligence Shakeup in Syria" (February 2002). Retrieved April 23, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Wayback Machine. July 23, 2011, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
5. ^ Ali Mamluk: Syria's new security chief - Region - World. Retrieved April 23, 2020 (English). 
6. ^ France issues arrest warrants for senior Syrian officials . In: Reuters . November 5, 2018 ( reuters.com [accessed April 25, 2020]).
7. ↑ ^{a b} Syria's Assad 'reshuffles security chiefs'. Retrieved April 23, 2020 (English). 
8. ↑ WebCite query result. Retrieved April 23, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Council Regulation concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Syria and repealing Regulation (EU) No 442/2011. Retrieved April 22, 2020 (English). 
10. ↑ Fidelius Schmid, Christoph Reuter, Jörg Diehl, DER SPIEGEL: Syria: Germany is hunting Assad's torturer - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved June 18, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Pascale Müller, DER SPIEGEL: Syrian Victims of Sexualized Violence: In Search of Law - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved June 18, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Fidelius Schmid, Christoph Reuter, Jörg Diehl, DER SPIEGEL: Syria: How the Hunt for Syrian War Criminals Works - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved June 18, 2020 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c d} Human Rights Watch | 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor | New York, NY 10118-3299 USA | t 1.212.290.4700: Torture Archipelago | Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances in Syria's Underground Prisons since March 2011. July 3, 2012, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
14. ↑ ^{a b c} “By All Means Necessary”. Retrieved April 22, 2020 (English). 
15. ^ Syrie: Assad remplace la plupart des chefs des principaux services de sécurité , rfi , 7 July 2019. Access date: 24 April 2020.
16. ↑ https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=75417765-7f84-b048-b987-0704c16dd6de&groupId=252038
17. ↑ https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/usud-al-cherubim-pro-assad-christian-militia/
18. ↑ https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/fifth-legion-new-auxiliary-force/
19. ↑ https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-syrian-national-resistance-liwa-khaybar/