Syria arrests Mihrac Ural, ex-Assad militia head also wanted by Turkey
The Turkey-born militia chief and a longtime ally of the Assad-regime, was sought by Ankara over the deadly Reyhanli bombings and by Damascus over his alleged role in massacres on the Mediterranean coast.
BEIRUT/ANKARA — Mihrac Ural, a Turkish-born militant and longtime supporter of Syria's ousted regime who is accused of involvement in massacres in Syria and Turkey, was arrested by Syrian authorities, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said Thursday.
What happened: Ural was captured late Wednesday while attempting to cross Syria's border and flee the country, SANA said without specifying where.
Citing Turkish security sources, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency also reported Ural was caught while trying to flee across the Syrian border, and that the arrest was carried out in an operation coordinated with Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, as well as Lebanese media, offered a different account, saying Ural was seized by masked men during a raid on a home in Mansourieh, about 10 kilometers northeast of Beirut.
