The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that Syrian intelligence had arrested Ali Kayali, known as Miraj Ural, while he was attempting to cross the border illegally. He is described as the main suspect in the 2013 Banias massacre. Last week, Syria’s Interior Ministry announced through the Internal Security Forces that it had arrested Jamal Tarabulsi, who served as Kayali’s deputy under the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad. The arrests have once again drawn attention to one of the darkest figures in the Syrian conflict.
Ural’s biography is complex and contradictory. He was born in 1956 in Antakya, in southwestern Turkey, but for many years presented himself as a Syrian Arab. In the 1980s, under Hafez al-Assad, he obtained Syrian citizenship and became known as Ali Kayali. In the 1970s, he began armed activities against the Turkish authorities, joining the far-left communist organization Ajilcilar and the militia known as the Iskenderun Liberation Front, which sought the region’s return to Syria. In 1978, he was arrested for terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the US consulate in Adana and a bank robbery. He passed through 12 Turkish prisons, then escaped in 1980 by bribing a guard after General Kenan Evren’s coup and found refuge in Syria, where he joined the Syrian army.
With the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Miraj Ural re-emerged on the scene. He led an armed shabiha group called the Syrian Resistance—People’s Front for the Liberation of Iskenderun, which was based in the countryside of Latakia and fought alongside regime forces as an auxiliary formation. It was during this period that his name became a symbol of brutal massacres, rather than merely political violence. Human rights groups, international organizations and local organizations have accused him and his group of war crimes and religiously and sectarianly motivated crimes that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians. This earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Banias.”
Among the most serious accusations is his alleged involvement in the Houla massacre in Homs province in May 2012, in which 111 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. He has also been linked to the massacre in the Bayda district of Banias on May 2, 2013, when hundreds of unarmed civilians were executed—slashed, burned and shot. Ural’s arrest, if confirmed and followed by a fair trial, could represent an important step in the long struggle to hold those responsible for mass atrocities in Syria accountable.
News Commentary
What is the “shabiha,” and what role did these pro-government militias play in the Syrian conflict? — “Shabiha” is an informal Syrian term—literally meaning “ghosts” or “gangs”—used to describe pro-government militiamen and armed groups linked to the Assad regime and often, though not exclusively, to the Alawite community. The term originally referred to criminal networks and informal guards operating around the Assad family and the security services. When protests began in 2011, the shabiha were used to disperse demonstrations, intimidate, abduct people, carry out extrajudicial killings and perpetrate sectarian violence. They operated as an auxiliary force alongside the army and intelligence services, helping the regime offset shortages of regular troops, guarding checkpoints and taking part in sieges and clearance operations. Later, many of them joined the National Defence Forces and other loyalist militias, while also becoming involved in smuggling and economic exploitation. The term has an intensely negative connotation; not all Alawites are shabiha, and not all pro-government militias are called by that name.
What is the “Iskenderun Liberation Front,” and why does the question of Iskenderun’s (Hatay’s) status remain disputed between Syria and Turkey? — The Iskenderun Liberation Front is a small Syrian nationalist/opposition group—reportedly an armed formation—that advocates returning Iskenderun (Hatay) to Syria and opposes Turkish control over the region. The dispute has its historical roots in the aftermath of World War I, when the Sanjak of Alexandretta, centered on Iskenderun, was part of the French Mandate for Syria. In 1939, France transferred it to Turkey, which turned it into Hatay Province. Syria has never officially recognized the transfer and continues to regard Hatay as Syrian territory; on some Syrian maps, it is still shown as part of Syria. Turkey considers Hatay an integral part of its territory. The international community largely recognizes Hatay as Turkish, but Damascus’s failure to formally renounce its claims and nationalist mobilization around the issue keep the dispute alive. In the context of the Syrian conflict, the issue has been further aggravated by Turkish military operations in Syria and Ankara’s support for the Syrian opposition.
Full version: Syrian Intelligence Arrests “Miraj Ural,” Main Suspect in the Banias Massacre