Rifaat Ali al-Assad,known as the "Butcher of Hama",is a Syrian former military officer and politician. He is the younger brother of the late President of Syria,Hafez al-Assad,and Jamil al-Assad,and the uncle of the former President Bashar al-Assad. He was the commanding officer of the ground operations of the 1982 Hama massacre ordered by his brother.
Darayya is a suburb of Damascus in Syria,the centre of Darayya lying 8 km south-west of the centre of Damascus. Administratively it belongs to Rif Dimashq.
The General Intelligence Directorate,also known as the General Security Directorate or Syrian GID,was the most important civil intelligence service of former Ba'athist Syria and played an important role of suppressing the people of Syria for the governments interests. The General Intelligence Directorate conducted an oppressive surveillance of the Syrian population,directed foreign intelligence and monitored activities in Lebanon on behalf of Hezbollah until its dissolution in December 2024.
The Air Force Intelligence Directorate was the intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria from 1963 until 2024,owing its importance to Hafez al-Assad's role as the Air Force commander. Despite its name,it was mainly involved with issues other than air force intelligence,and took an active part in the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood rebellion in the 1980s. Agents of this service have frequently been stationed in Syrian embassies or branch offices of the national airline.
The Military Intelligence Directorate was the military intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria until 2024. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period,its current organization was established in 1969. Its predecessor organisation was called the Deuxième Bureau. It was headquartered at the Defense Ministry building in Damascus. The military intelligence service,or the Mukhabarat in Arabic,was very influential in Syrian politics.
Major General Hisham Ikhtiyar;1941 –20 July 2012) was a Syrian military official,and a national security adviser to president Bashar al-Assad.
Jamil Hassan was the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate and a former close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad.
The National Security Bureau,officially the National Security Bureau of the Central Command of the Syrian Regional Branch,was a Ba'ath Party bureau which coordinated the work of Syria's intelligence agencies and advised the General Secretary prior to the 2024 fall of the Assad regime. The last head of the National Security Bureau was Kifah Moulhem.
The Rif Dimashq offensive was a Syrian Army offensive in the Rif Dimashq Governorate during August–October 2012,as part of the Syrian Civil War.
The Darayya massacre was a massacre carried out by Syrian government forces of Bashar al-Assad that occurred between 20 and 25 August 2012 in the town of Darayya in the Rif Dimashq province of Syria,during the Syrian civil war.
The Battle of Darayya was fought from the end of 2012 to the beginning of 2013 between the Syrian Army and the Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Darayya.
Ghassan Jaoudat Ismail is the former head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
Mezzeh Air Base was an air base of the former Syrian Air Force located in Mezzeh,Damascus,Syria,south-west of the old centre of Damascus. It had one runway of 8,258 feet (2,517 m) length,at elevation 2,407 feet (734 m). In mid-2013 the airbase was described by the BBC as "an important strategic installation [which] plays a significant role in distributing the government's military supplies." Reuters reported in mid-2013 that it was "used by Syria's elite Republican Guard,Special Forces and Air Force Intelligence,[and] also serves as a private airport for the Assad family." It also said that during the Syrian civil war the base was "used to fire rockets and artillery at rebellious Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods on the edge of the capital." Mezzeh Air Base was also used by the Syrian regime as a jail to imprison opponents during the Syrian civil war. Various inquiries and investigations reported that acts of torture and possible war crimes were committed in the jails of Mezzeh Air Base.
The Martyrs of Islam Brigade is a Syrian rebel group formed in the Damascus suburb of Darayya and was the main group that operated in the suburb. It was the only Syrian rebel group to be completely under the authority of a local city council and received U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles despite the tight siege Darayya was in between 2012 and 2016.
The siege of Darayya and Muadamiyat was launched by the Syrian Armed Forces in late 2012 after rebels took over most of the Damascus suburbs of Darayya and Muadamiyat al-Sham in November 2012. Since then,the power grid in the area was cut off as the government attempted to storm the towns multiple times. During the siege the towns were continuously hit by airstrikes from the Syrian Air Force.
The Guardians of the Dawn are a coalition of Christian pro-government militias which are involved in the Syrian Civil War and affiliated with the Air Force Intelligence Directorate. Although the Guardians of the Dawn,whose official motto is "A homeland that we do not protect is one we do not deserve to live in",promote themselves as a Syrian nationalist force,their fighters are primarily motivated by a concept of holy war to defend the Christian areas of Syria from hostile rebels. The militiamen of Usud al-Cherubim,one of the coalition's constituent groups,even refer to themselves as "mujahideen of the cross".
Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun is a former military commander,and served as Syrian Minister of the Interior prior to the fall of the Assad regime.
'Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Branch 251,also known as internal branch or Al-Khatib branch,was the unit of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate under the Assad regime concerned with internal security. It has been responsible for security in the Damascus region. Branch 251 operates Al-Khatib prison,a detention and torture center located in the Muhajreen neighborhood in central Damascus.
Omar Aziz,also known by the nom de guerre or kunyaAbu Kamel,was a Syrian anarchist,intellectual,and revolutionary. He is known for his role in working with the Local Coordination Committees during the early stages of the Syrian Civil War and for his writings advocating horizontal organization.
Ba'athist Syria 
Syrian Air Force 
Major General 