Regime Appoints Major General Ali Samra as Director of the Air Defense Department

Ali Tawfiq Samra was appointed director of the Air Defense Department of the regime’s militias, according to Shaam Network.

Media sources close to the Assad regime revealed the appointment of an officer with the rank of Major General named Ali Tawfiq Samra as director of the Air Defense Department of the regime’s militias. The Assad regime decided earlier to appoint Major General Samra, commander of the 26th Division in the regime’s militias. He was also serving as deputy director of the Air Defense Department before being appointed as its director recently.

Several pro-regime news pages reported the appointment of the aforementioned general. At the same time, information indicates that he hails from the Ain al-Krum district of the Suqaylabiya area in the Hama governorate in central Syria.

The Assad regime has several officers and military commanders affiliated with the regime’s army and known for their criminal record, most notably Hussein Ishaq, who was killed in Maliha in Damascus countryside in 2014.

Sources loyal to the Assad regime revealed earlier the appointment of Major General Judge Yazan al-Homsi as director of the Military Justice Department, succeeding Major General Muhammad Hassan, who holds a criminal record and is linked to several crimes and the issuance of death sentences against detainees.

Brigadier General Wafiq Nasser retired after completing his role as the head of the Military Intelligence Branch in Aleppo in early 2023. Nasser is widely recognized as one of the most notorious individuals for his involvement in military operations and human rights abuses against the Syrian people.

Pro-Assad pages distributed flyers praising two officers in the regime’s military, despite their reputation as notorious criminals. One of the officers was appointed as the commander of the border guard forces, while also maintaining his previous position as the head of the security committee in Deir ez-Zor and commander of a regime militia unit in Homs.

According to pro-regime sources, the Assad regime has undergone previous personnel changes that involved the transfer of several military intelligence officers and security branch leaders. This pattern is repeated periodically and results in the promotion of some officers and the dismissal of others, due to their involvement in the torture and killing of Syrian citizens.