More than 12 years after a prominent Syrian dissident and her entire family vanished during a regime raid in Damascus, Syria’s official National Commission for Missing Persons has confirmed that her six children were killed by armed factions loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad shortly after their 2013 abduction.
Rania al-Abbasi, a dual Syrian and Arab national chess champion and practicing dentist, was a well-known public critic of the Assad government before her detention. In March 2013, forces loyal to the then-ruling Assad regime stormed her Damascus family home, taking Abbasi, her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin, and their six children — ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old at the time — into custody. The entire family disappeared without a trace in the years that followed, becoming one of the most high-profile symbols of the widespread forced disappearances that marked Assad’s 50-year rule over Syria.
In an official statement posted to the social platform X on Saturday, Syria’s new interior ministry confirmed that evidence gathered from multiple detained former regime operatives confirms the six children were killed by militias tied to the former Assad government. The ministry added that supporting video evidence and case files provided by the National Commission for Missing Persons have further corroborated these findings, and that search operations to recover the children’s remains are still active. Per official protocol, the surviving extended family was notified of the investigative results before any public announcement to honor their right to information and protect their privacy and dignity.
Investigators have also named Amjad Youssef, a former Assad regime intelligence officer infamously linked to the 2013 Tadamon massacre in southern Damascus, as a directly implicated perpetrator in the children’s killings. The Tadamon massacre gained global attention in 2022 when leaked footage shot by the perpetrators themselves showed blindfolded, bound civilians — including 15 children and seven women — being led to a mass grave pit and executed one by one. The footage became irrefutable documentary proof of systemic war crimes committed under Assad’s leadership.
Youssef was captured by current Syrian government forces during a security sweep in the Ghab Plain of rural Hama in April 2025. A recorded confession released by the interior ministry after his capture saw Youssef admit to participating in the killing of roughly 40 detainees, claiming he acted on his own direction. Hassan al-Abbasi, Rania’s brother, told media the family was able to confirm the children’s identities from footage of Youssef’s interrogation, in which the former officer falsely labeled the young children as “major financiers of terrorism”. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Hassan al-Abbasi added that the children were killed the same day they were detained, most by strangulation with plastic cables.
The fate of Rania al-Abbasi and her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin remains unconfirmed as of Saturday’s announcement. Human rights organizations say it is likely the couple were also killed shortly after detention, though their remains have yet to be located.
The al-Abbasi family’s case is far from an isolated tragedy. Between the start of the 2011 Syrian uprising and the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, tens of thousands of Syrians were detained or forcibly disappeared by regime forces. Data from the Syrian Network for Human Rights shows that between March 2011 and August 2025, more than 177,000 Syrians were forcibly disappeared, including over 4,500 children and nearly 9,000 women.