Syrian rebels kill Assad's 'butcher of Baida and Banias'

Syrian rebels kill Assad's 'butcher of Baida and Banias'
Syrian rebels have assassinated notorious pro-regime Turkish commander Mihrac Ural, accused of carrying out the al-Baida and Banias massacres in 2013.
2 min read
30 March, 2016
Up to 450 civilians were executed en mass in the Baida and Banias massacres [Getty]

Notorious Syrian-Turkish pro-regime commander Mihrac Ural has been killed by Syrian rebels in the al-Nabi Younis area of Latakia in the country's northwest.

Ural, also know as Ali al-Kayyali, was killed along with several Russian and regime forces in a shelling attack by the rebel Ahrar al-Sham group.

Ural was the leader of pro-regime militia accused of taking part in massacres in May 2013, where up to 450 civilians were executed en mass in the two coastal towns of al-Baida and Banias.

"Our scouts spotted a lot of suspicious movement from cars on the hill top, where Russian and Syrian troops are positioned. So the order immediately was made to shell, damaging their main base and injuring them," rebel Ahrar al-Sham group spokesman Abu Yusuf al-Muhajir told The New Arab.

"We then saw many ambulances arriving on the scene. Our sources in Latakia hospital have confirmed that Ural and several Russian and regime troops were killed in the attack," the spokesman added.

Syrian regime forces executed hundreds of "rebel sympathisers" in the towns of al-Baida and Banias on May 2 and 3, 2013, in one of the deadliest instances of mass summary executions since the start of the conflict in Syria.

A UN report documented nine mass killings in all, attributing all but one to government forces, but said both government and rebel fighters had committed war crimes including murder, hostage-taking and shelling of civilians.

It said the killings in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa, two pockets of rebel sympathisers surrounded by villages loyal to Assad on the outskirts of the town of Banias, did not involve fighting with rebels and appeared designed to send a message of deterrence.

Turkish authorities have also blamed Ural, who also had Syrian nationality, for a spate of terrorist attacks in the town of Reyhanli in Turkey's southern Hatay province in May 2013 that left more than 50 people dead.