The mugshot of Adnan Abboud Hilweh, an Assad-era general who was arrested by Syria for allegedly being behind chemical attacks against civilians, after his arrest on April 29, 2026. (Syrian Interior Ministry / SANA)

Syria arrests former Assad-era general accused of 2013 chemical attack involvement

Interior Ministry says it detained Adnan Abboud Hilweh, who it says was responsible for sarin nerve gas ‘massacre’ on Damascus-area suburb Ghouta, which killed over 1,000

by · The Times of Israel

DAMASCUS — Syria’s interior minister on Wednesday said the country detained an Assad-era general accused of involvement in the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack.

In a post on X, Anas Khattab said that “Adnan Abboud Hilweh, one of the most prominent officers responsible for the chemical massacre in Eastern Ghouta in 2013, is now in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Department.”

US intelligence says more than 1,000 people were killed with sarin nerve gas in the suburb of Damascus in 2013 during Syria’s civil war.

The attack was attributed to the Syrian government under the rule of Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in late 2024.

At the time of the attack, the government denied involvement and blamed rebels.

Hilweh was one of three Syrian generals accused by the US State Department in 2022 of involvement in “gross violations of human rights, namely the flagrant denial of the right to life of at least 1,400 people in Ghouta,” banning them along with their immediate family from entering the country.

A Syrian national flag with the picture of the Syrian President Bashar Assad hangs at an Army check point, in the town of Douma in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, July 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Hilweh was also sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Syria’s 13-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced millions of others. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, many into the country’s brutal prison system.

Syria’s new authorities have repeatedly vowed to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities, while activists and the international community have emphasized the importance of transitional justice in the war-ravaged country.

Syrian riot police block the courtroom as people gather inside the Palace of Justice during the first trial session of Atef Najib in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

On Monday, a Syrian court conducted the first hearing in the trial of Assad, in absentia, and of senior figures from his government, one of whom appeared in person.

Former security official Atif Najib, a relative of Assad’s, was in the dock in handcuffs.

Assad fled to Moscow with only a handful of confidants as Islamist-led forces closed in on Damascus in December 2024, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom reportedly went abroad or took refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority.