BEIRUT, January 31. /TASS/. Atef Najib, a maternal cousin of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, was detained by the country's new authorities, Syria TV reported.
The report didn’t say where exactly and under what circumstances the detention took place. It said that under Assad, Najib was head of the political security department in the province of Daraa.
The new Syrian government has not yet commented on the report.
Syria’s armed opposition units started a major offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates at the end of November. On December 8, they entered Damascus while government troops withdrew from the city. Bashar Assad resigned as president and left the country.
Mohammed al-Bashir announced on December 10 that he will lead a transitional cabinet in Syria until March 2025. He had previously headed the opposition’s Salvation Government in Idlib since January 2024.
The de facto leader of Syria is now Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who heads a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (banned in Russia). It was announced on January 29 that al-Sharaa will serve as the country’s transitional president.