Photographs showed a complex of tunnels underneath the mansion of Maher al-Assad that appeared to be ready to use as escape routes had the Syrian people threatened their rule
New-look Syria was settling into an uneasy lull in violence yesterday as a new transitional government took shape whilst creepy Assad family lairs were further exposed.
New Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir, who helped rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham HTS run their Idlib stronghold was in meetings whilst the focus remained on the Assad family. Cameras have revealed the labyrinth of escape tunnels beneath the home of Bashar al-Assad’s hated brother Maher’s home and witnesses saw abandoned tanks in the grounds.
And as Syria faces a new dawn the focus is switching the macabre personalities involved in Assad’s cruel war on his own people – the latest being Maher. Known as “the enforcer” bloodthirsty Maher is believed to have been behind much of the horrors meted out on civilians and rebels since 2011.
Photographs show a complex of tunnels beneath Maher’s Damascus home, leading deep underground and apparently used as an escape route. Within his vast mansion lavish decorations, luxurious furniture had been largely looted by locals but it is clear the feared Assad brother lived a life of luxury and privilege.
Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Maher, former head of the elite 4th Armoured Division and the republican Guard, following he had been killed but also that he escaped. It was “the enforcer” who was behind the deaths of some 2,000 Syrians as he tried to quell rebellion in Ghouta, outside Damascus in the early hours of August 21, 2013.
Weapons inspectors said evidence pointed towards Sarin nerve agent being used for the attack and The US State Department called out the dreadful attack. Now Maher could be one of those pursued by the new leaders of Syria after HTS has vowed to track Assad’s kill squads, mass murderers and prison torturers even if they are abroad.
Syrians celebrating the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s appalling regime say anything is better than him – even though the country could still descend into a cauldron of violence. Jailed local Jihad Mustafa Shibani was tortured and imprisoned for two years before his release – just for buying a motorbike with dollars.
He was released the day Aleppo fell to the insurgents and says: “Everything was banned in Syria. The Syrian people had been oppressed, you can’t imagine.”
Asked if he fears the new HTS dominated government he says: “We are not afraid. There can be no one more unjust than Bashar. Impossible.” New PM Mohammed al-Bashir led the so-called “salvation government” in areas controlled by rebel groups – led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led the Turkish-sponsored rebellion.
But there are fears for the western-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces who defeated Islamic State in 2018 and have now been driven out of Deir el-Zour by Sharaa’s fighters. It is believed Israel has bombed Syria 350 times in just 48 hours in a desperate bid to destroy any chance of jihad against it.
Life in Damascus is slowly returning to normal after jihadi-led Syrian insurgents ousted President Bashar Assad over the weekend. A member of Hayat al-Tahrir, vowed they will keep up pressure, claiming: “We will advance toward Raqqa and Hasakah and other areas in eastern Syria.”
Israel said it had bombed more than 350 military sites in Syria during the previous 48 hours, targeting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the wave of airstrikes in neighboring Syria was necessary to keep the weapons from being used against Israel following the Syrian government’s stunning collapse.
Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s prewar population of 23 million, becoming a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers. A man who spent 32 years in a Syrian prison has finally returned to his home in Lebanon after an offensive by insurgents toppled the government of Bashar Assad.
In 1992, Suheil Hamwi worked as a merchant, selling various goods in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon. On the night of Eid il-Burbara, or Saint Barbara’s Day – a holiday similar to Halloween – a man came to his door to buy some whiskey.
Mr Hamwi said he handed his 10-month-old son, George, to his wife and went to his car to fetch the whiskey and make the sale. As he approached his vehicle, a car filled with men pulled up, he said, forcing him inside and taking him away.
It would be years before his family heard from him again. Mr Hamwi was one of hundreds of Lebanese citizens detained during Syria’s occupation of Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and believed to be held in Syrian prisons for decades.
On Sunday, freedom came to him and others unexpectedly – prisoners who had heard rumours about Syria’s opposition forces and their sweeping campaign found that guards had abandoned their posts. Mr Hamwi and other prisoners left, he said, and he would soon be among the first from Lebanon to re-enter the country.
He said: “I’m still scared this might not be real. I found my freedom.”
For years after the night of his disappearance, Mr Hamwi’s family did not know where he was. It was not until 16 years later that his wife discovered he was imprisoned in Syria. Even then, the reason for his detention remained unclear, Mr Hamwi said.
For years, he said, he lived in nearly complete isolation, alone in a small cell, surrounded by other Lebanese detainees as well as Palestinians and Iraqis. In 2008, he said, his wife was able to visit him for the first time. Then she came about once a year.
