Syria: thirteen years later, the execution of a family of six children confirmed

The confirmation, on Saturday May 30, by the Syrian authorities, of the death of six siblings kidnapped in 2013 with their mother by the regime of Bashar El-Assad, and whose fate was until now still unknown, aroused emotion and anger across the country. The news was relayed by several Syrian, Lebanese and pan-Arab media as well as on social networks, accompanied by a photo of the children surrounded by their parents before their kidnapping and execution.

“This is today the most widely used photo in Syria. She represents […] millions of Syrians… having suffered abuse or forced disappearances during the murderous war that the country experienced between 2011 and 2024, writes drawer. For many Syrians, these executions and those of thousands of others are, in fact, glaring symbols of the cruelty of the former power, which sowed terror in the country after pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, in the wake of the “Arab Spring.”

In fact, Rania Abbasi, a Damascene dentist, and her children were arrested on March 11, 2013 by the moukhabarat, the formidable intelligence services Syrians under Assad, according to the National Commission for Missing Persons, created in May 2025 by the new authorities, which confirmed their deaths.

“Froidement assassinésâ€

“The officers arrested Dima, 14, Intissar, 13, Najah, 11, Alaa, 8, Ahmad, 6, and Layane, 2, as well as their mother. The young victims were coldly murdered two hours later, in a regime detention center. Rania’s fate remains unknown to this day… reports The Orient-The Day, citing the Commission’s report.

In the magazine New Linesthe maternal uncle of the six children, Hassan Abbasi, recounts his struggle for thirteen years to try to obtain information. He confides his pain after recognizing the faces of his nieces and nephew in a video after their execution:

“I saw their fragile bodies on the ground, blood streaming from their faces.â€

Main suspect in the massacre in the Tadamon neighborhood, which caused the death of more than 280 civilians on April 16, 2013, in Damascus, Amjad Youssef, army officer moukhabarat, could be involved in this killing. He was arrested by Syrian security forces on April 24.

On social networks, the affair aroused emotion and anger and reopened the painful case of missing people in Syria, “At a time when calls are increasing to accelerate the transitional justice process and prosecute those involved in crimes,†underlines the Syrian site Al-Joumhouriya.

The number of people arrested by the former power during the conflict and who were not found by their families after the fall of Assad in December 2024 is estimated between 200,000 and 300,000.