Lebanon opens investigation into Syrian militia leader's abduction and transfer to Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese authorities were investigating how a former Syrian militia commander suspected of committing crimes during the government of ousted President Bashar Assad was abducted in Lebanon and taken to Syria , judicial and security officials said Friday.

Syria’s intelligence department said Thursday that it had detained Ali Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, as he was trying to flee from Syria across the border. The intelligence department said that Kayali was responsible for killings in 2013 in the coastal town of Baniyas that left hundreds of people dead.

Lebanese judicial officials said that the country’s public prosecution had opened an investigation into the case. Authorities asked army intelligence and police intelligence units to analyze telecommunication calls to determine whether Kayali was taken to the Syrian Embassy outside of Beirut or straight to Syria after he was picked up in the Lebanese mountain town of Mansouriyeh where he had been living.

The three judicial and two security officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren't authorized to speak to the media about the case, which was still under investigation.

A Syrian official didn't immediately respond when asked for comment over the alleged kidnapping.

A photo of the handcuffed gray-haired Kayali surfaced on social media as he stood between two Syrian flags. Lebanese authorities were investigating whether the photo was taken at the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon.

Syrian authorities on Thursday released a photo of Kayali, who was born in 1956, wearing a prison uniform.

The Turkey-born Kayali was one of Syria’s most wanted figures, and news about his arrest led to celebrations in parts of Syria, because he was blamed for sectarian killings during Assad’s crackdown on the opposition in the early years of the conflict that broke out in March 2011.

Such kidnappings in Lebanon aren't uncommon. In 2011, Assad’s authorities were blamed for the kidnapping of senior Baath Party official Shibli al-Aysami from the Lebanese mountain town of Aley. Al-Aysami, who was a leading member of the Baath Party that governed Syria and Iraq for decades, was 86 at the time and was never found.

In August, Lebanon’s judicial authorities handed over a former senior Syrian military officer under Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict.

Dozens of officials have been put on trial in Syria since Assad’s fall over suspected crimes they allegedly committed during Syria’s conflict that left 500,000 people dead.

Assad’s cousin and senior security official Atef Najib was sentenced to death in August. Assad was sentenced in absentia.

Assad was ousted from power when gunmen opposed to him marched to Damascus in December 2024, ending the five-decade rule of the Assad family .