Syria’s Interior Ministry Internal Security Forces announced Sunday the arrest of Jamal Tarabulsi, who served as the deputy of Ali Kayali, known as Miraj Ural, under the ousted regime. According to the ministry, Tarabulsi participated alongside militias loyal to Bashar al-Assad in combat operations supporting government forces, including battles in the countryside of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo during the years of the Syrian revolution. The ministry described the arrest as a move against a figure close to Ural, who was regarded as the right-hand man of pro-government factions.
Ural’s deputy was arrested approximately ten months after the last recorded movement of groups under his control. At the beginning of 2026, reports said that units supporting the ousted regime, led by Miraj Ural, had arrived in the city of Tabqa in Raqqa province to support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and fight alongside them. Syrian security sources at the time linked the group’s appearance in Tabqa to clashes between the forces of Syria’s new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the SDF, after the SDF failed to implement the March 10, 2025 agreement.
As early as July 2017, local media reported that Tarabulsi had been wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated in his car in Aleppo; at the time, it was not specified who was behind the assassination attempt. Later, the Internal Security Forces published a photograph of Tarabulsi with Ural on their official accounts, accusing him of involvement in the 2013 massacres in Baniyas and al-Bayda. These allegations add to claims about his role in combat operations on behalf of the former regime.
Ural himself is a figure with a long and bloody history. He was born in 1956 in Antakya, southwestern Turkey, but always 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 activity against the Turkish government, joining the left-wing communist organization Acilciler (“The Impetuous”), known for violence, and the Iskenderun Liberation Front militia, which declared a struggle to return the region to Syria. In 1978, he was arrested for terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the US consulate in Adana, and for bank robbery; he passed through 12 Turkish prisons. In 1980, Ural escaped after bribing a guard amid General Kenan Evren’s coup, took refuge in Syria and joined the Syrian army. When the Syrian revolution began in 2011, he re-emerged, leading an armed shabiha structure called the Syrian Resistance—Popular Front for the Liberation of Iskenderun. It was based in the countryside of Latakia and fought as an auxiliary force for the regime’s army.
Human rights, international and local organizations have accused Ural and his group of war crimes and sectarian crimes that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, earning him the nickname “the Butcher of Baniyas.” Among the most prominent allegations is his involvement in the Houla massacre in Homs province in May 2012, when 111 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. He is also accused of participating in the massacre in Baniyas’s al-Bayda district on May 2, 2013, where hundreds of unarmed people were executed—killed, burned and shot.
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What were the “shabiha,” and why were these militias considered an integral part of Syria’s state machinery of violence? — The “shabiha” were irregular pro-government militias, predominantly Alawite, linked to the Assad family and the security services. They operated as a parallel force, dispersing protests and participating in kidnappings, torture, killings and smuggling. They were considered part of the state machinery of violence because they were closely connected to the mukhabarat, the Republican Guard and the Assad clan; operated with impunity; and were used to suppress the opposition and intimidate communities along sectarian lines, even though they were not formally part of the regular army.
What was the March 10, 2025 agreement between Syria’s new government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, and what issues was it intended to resolve? — The agreement, signed on March 10, 2025, between Syria’s transitional government and the SDF, provided for the integration of the SDF and the northeast’s associated civilian institutions into the Syrian state. It was intended to address the incorporation of the SDF into the national security forces; the transfer to Damascus of control over border crossings, airports and oil and gas fields; governance of the northeast; guarantees of the rights of Kurds and other communities; rejection of the country’s partition; and a political settlement. Its implementation remained difficult because of mistrust, disputes over command and the influence of external actors.
Why did Baniyas and al-Bayda become symbols of sectarian massacres in Syria, and which communities suffered in these events? — Baniyas and al-Bayda became symbols of sectarian massacres in March 2025, when mass reprisals against Alawite civilians began following attacks on security forces by remnants of Assad’s supporters. Killings, disappearances and the destruction of homes were documented in these areas, prompting accusations of collective punishment. Alawites suffered most, while some reports also indicated that individual Christians and other minorities were affected; thousands of people were forced to flee. These events became a symbol of the risk of sectarian revenge and the weakness of minority protections during the transitional period.
Full version: Syrian security announces the arrest of Miraj Ural’s right-hand man