Damascus, Oct. 15 (SANA) Syria’s General Intelligence Service has arrested Ali Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, who is involved in playing a leading role in the 2013 massacres in Baniyas, while attempting to flee across the border.
The arrest marks a significant development in efforts to secure justice for the victims and their families, who have waited more than 13 years for accountability. It also underscores the Syrian state’s commitment to pursuing those responsible for crimes against Syrians and ensuring they do not evade justice.
Profile of Ali Kayali (“Mihraç Ural”)
Born in 1956 in Türkiye’s Hatay province, Kayali is accused of involvement in serious crimes against civilians. He began his armed activities in the 1970s against the Turkish government, joining a militia known as the “Acilciler”, which means (The Urgentists) according to accounts of his background.
He was arrested in 1978 over attacks carried out on Turkish territory, including the bombing of the US Consulate in Adana and a bank robbery in the same province. He was reportedly transferred among 12 Turkish prisons.
Kayali fled Türkiye for Syria in 1982, where he received special privileges because of a family connection to the ousted regime’s leader through his wife, Malak al-Fadel.
When the Syrian revolution began, Kayali sided with Bashar al-Assad’s regime against popular protests and formed an armed militia that participated in suppressing the Syrian people and was implicated in massacres in several areas.
Crimes against humanity and the Baniyas massacres
Kayali faces accusations of war crimes involving hundreds of civilians. Among the most prominent are the massacres in al-Bayda and Ras al-Nabaa in Baniyas in 2013, which earned him the nickname “Butcher of Baniyas.”
According to documentation by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, al-Bayda massacre killed 264 civilians, including 36 children and 28 women. The Ras al-Nabaa massacre claimed 195 civilian lives, including 56 children and 43 women.
Witness accounts and reports on the two massacres described bodies scattered across streets, shops and basements; field executions using firearms and bladed weapons; and the burning of homes and bodies. Militias affiliated with Kayali were also involved in carrying out massacres against Syrians in the countryside of Latakia, Aleppo and Idlib, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries.
Kayali is also involved in helping plan the May 2013 bombings in the Turkish city of Reyhanli, which killed 53 people, wounded dozens and caused extensive property damage. The attacks were attributed to the intelligence services of the ousted regime.
Earlier on October 4, Internal Security Forces arrested Jamal Trabulsi, Kayali’s deputy.
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