Syria’s transitional government has vowed to dissolve and restructure all security agencies of the toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime accused of mass killings and abuses.
Al-Assad, who ruled Syria for more than two decades, fled the country earlier this month as Islamist-led rebels advanced on the capital Damascus during a lighting sweep.
The interim government, installed by Syria’s new rulers, has since struggled to re-establish security and pursued a crackdown on al-Assad’s loyalists suspected of atrocities during his region.
Newly appointed intelligence chief Anas Khattab said all security agencies will be disbanded and rebuilt.
“The security establishment will be reconstituted after dissolving all security branches and restructuring them in a way befitting our people, sacrifices and their long history,” Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted him as saying late Saturday.
Khattab accused al-Assad’s regime of exploiting the security apparatus to oppress Syrians.
“Our valiant people, with all their different sects and categories, have suffered a lot of injustice and oppression of the former regime through its various security services,” he said.
The transitional government’s security forces have rounded up around 300 suspects in less than a week through ongoing operations in several parts of Syria, a monitoring group reported on Sunday.
The arrests included former officers, security personnel, and informants involved in detaining many Syrians, as well as other suspects in committing abuses under the protection of al-Assad’s regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
According to the UK-based observatory, Lebanon Saturday handed over to Syrian authorities around 70 Syrians, including ex-officers, at a border crossing between the two countries.
