Bashar al-Assad’s Cousin, Involved in Suppressing Protests, Detained in Syria

Atef Najib, the cousin of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, has been detained in Syria. Najib was involved in suppressing protests that triggered the 2011 uprising, reports NewsBox.

The arrest took place in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Assad family. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the interim leader of Syria, has announced plans to pursue those involved in 'shedding Syrian blood and mass killings,' according to CNN.

Atef Najib has faced sanctions from the US and the European Union for his role in the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, which escalated into a civil war. The protests against the Assad regime began in the spring of 2011 after a group of children were arrested and tortured for anti-regime graffiti in the city of Daraa.

Najib, who was then head of the regime's political security directorate in Daraa, refused to release the children, provoking further protests. Eventually, the children were freed, but the protests spread throughout Syria.

Lt. Colonel Mustafa Knaifati, a high-ranking official in the new security administration in Latakia, stated that Najib is 'considered one of those responsible for crimes against the Syrian people.'

The rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria has been marked by decades of conflict and political repression. According to Amnesty International, all sides of the conflict were accused of unlawful attacks, killing civilians, and destroying infrastructure.

The leader of the transitional regime, al-Sharaa, declared an aspiration for 'civil peace.' He and his supporters are determined to rebuild the country after more than a decade of civil war, which has claimed over 300,000 lives and forced more than six million Syrians to flee their homeland.