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Commission Says Six Children of Missing Syrian Dentist Are Dead

Detainee testimony with a recorded confession links the deaths to former Assad intelligence officer Amjad Youssef and is guiding searches for remains.

Overview

  • The National Commission for Missing Persons announced on Saturday that it has reached a high degree of professional certainty that Dr Rania al‑Abbasi’s six children, detained in March 2013, are deceased.
  • Syria’s Interior Ministry said investigations and multiple detainee statements point to killings by groups and militias tied to the former regime and named Amjad Youssef as a preliminary suspect.
  • Amjad Youssef was captured in April in the Ghab Plain and a recorded confession released by authorities says he admitted taking part in numerous killings linked to the 2013 Tadamon atrocity.
  • Family members said they viewed video material tied to the investigation and identified the children, but the fate of Dr al‑Abbasi and her husband remains officially unresolved.
  • The commission’s finding will shape ongoing searches for remains and potential prosecutions as investigators work through a backlog of thousands of enforced disappearance cases dating to the Assad era.