Syrian Internal Security Forces arrested Brig. Gen. Jaber Mehrez Ibrahim, who served as commander of the 138th Air Defense Brigade in the town of Saida during the era of the deposed regime, following a precise surveillance and tracking operation, reported Syria’s state news agency SANA on Sunday. Records and preliminary investigations showed that Ibrahim was involved in issuing orders to kill and arrest people and suppress protesters, as well as participating in military campaigns targeting villages and towns in eastern Daraa countryside, pursuing civilians and targeting their homes. Investigations also indicate that he was directly responsible for the Saida Housing massacre, in which nearly 120 people were killed, and that his name was linked to systematic arrests and torture involving a large number of people from the province, including child martyr Hamza al-Khatib. The ousted regime arrested al-Khatib, 13, in the early days of the Syrian uprising that erupted in the city of Daraa on March 18, 2011. He died under torture in detention. On May 21, 2011, al-Khatib’s tortured and mutilated body was returned to his family, weeks after his arrest during an anti-government demonstration. His death, alongside the torture of other children and teenagers arrested for writing anti-Assad graffiti, triggered widespread protests and a brutal crackdown by government forces. Following the ouster of the regime in December 2024, the new authorities launched a crackdown against former officials and military personnel. Ibrahim’s arrest is part of these ongoing prosecutions over allegations of abuses committed during the former regime's years in power.
