Syria's General Intelligence Service has arrested Ali Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, the main suspect in the 2013 Baniyas massacre, as he attempted to flee across the border, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). The agency did not specify where he was arrested or which country he was attempting to enter. Syrian sources say he had been spotted crossing the border into Lebanon several times. However, according to Lebanon's MTV television, the Syrian-Turkish national known as Ali Kayali, or Mihrac Ural, and nicknamed the "Butcher of Baniyas" in Syria, was the same person reportedly abducted from his home in Mansourieh, in Lebanon's Metn district, after his wife and son were tied up. Asharq Al-Awsat could not independently verify the accuracy of the report. Who Is Mihrac Ural? Mihrac Ural was born in 1956 in Türkiye's Hatay province, formerly known as the Sanjak of Alexandretta. He joined a far-left extremist party and was imprisoned several times in Türkiye before fleeing to Syria in the early 1980s. There, he received special privileges, including Syrian citizenship, which was granted to him by then-President Hafez al-Assad. Ural later adopted the Syrian name Ali Kayali and led an armed group known as the Syrian Resistance, which fought alongside forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad throughout the Syrian war. The group has been linked to the massacres in al-Bayda and Baniyas and participated alongside Assad's forces in suppressing the Syrian uprising. Ural's name has also been associated with the 2012 Houla massacre and the bombings in Reyhanli, Türkiye. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the al-Bayda massacre claimed the lives of 264 civilians, including 36 children and 28 women. The Ras al-Nabaa massacre killed another 195 civilians, including 56 children and 43 women. Testimonies and reports documenting the two massacres described bodies scattered across streets, shops and even basements, as well as summary executions carried out with firearms and bladed weapons. Homes and bodies were also reportedly burned. Militias affiliated with Kayali were also accused of carrying out massacres against Syrians in the countryside of Latakia, Aleppo and Idlib, leaving hundreds dead and wounded. Human Rights Watch, in a report published in September 2013, documented the execution of at least 248 people, including 167 in al-Bayda and 81 in Baniyas, warning that the actual death toll could be higher. Based on survivor testimonies and video evidence, the organization concluded that the vast majority of the victims had been killed after fighting had ended and opposition fighters had withdrawn from the two areas. Following news of Kayali's arrest, chants of "Allahu Akbar" rang out from mosques in al-Bayda, a town near Baniyas in Syria's western Tartus province, on Thursday. Videos circulating online showed mosques broadcasting the chants, which those sharing the footage said were in celebration of Ural's reported arrest, nearly 13 years after the massacre. Marking the occasion, Fadel Abdul Ghany, executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, wrote on X on Thursday: "On May 10, 2013, we published our report documenting the killing of 459 civilians, including 92 children and 71 women. We named Ali Kayali in the report, based on testimonies from residents who identified him as one of the leaders of the massacre." He described the killings as a massacre with a sectarian character, recalling the painstaking work of documenting the names of children, women and men, families that had lost several members or had been wiped out entirely, and survivors whose testimonies remained unforgettable. "More than 13 years later, I feel how important it is that this case has finally reached a stage where one of its most prominent suspects can be investigated. Today, I am thinking especially of the victims' families, who have waited all these years," he added. Ahmad Muwaffaq Zaidan, media adviser to the Syrian presidency, also welcomed the arrest in a post on X. "We congratulate our people on the arrest by Syrian intelligence, in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, of the criminal Mihrac Ural, known as Ali Kayali, who carried out massacres against our people during the Syrian revolution, including the al-Bayda massacre in Baniyas," he wrote. He vowed that those responsible for killings would be pursued regardless of how much time had passed, stressing that perpetrators would not escape Syria's security agencies. Syrian authorities had previously announced on October 4 the arrest of Jamal Trabulsi, whom they identified as Ural's deputy, on suspicion of involvement in the same massacre. Syrian authorities are pursuing individuals implicated in abuses against civilians during Assad's rule as part of their stated efforts to achieve transitional justice and hold those responsible for crimes accountable. On December 8, 2024, Syrian rebels entered Damascus and announced the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime, ending the rule he had inherited from his father, Hafez al-Assad.
