Bassam Haidar – Pro Justice

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Bassam Haidar

General information
Place of birth: Latakia
Specialization: The Army and Armed Forces – Air Force

Current service position
20th Air Force Division commander

Previous service positions
2016: 20th Division commander
2015: Officer in 20th Division
Before 2011: Commander of 24th Independent Brigade which includes Deir Ezzor and Raqqa airbases
– Officer in Air Force

 

 

 

When the peaceful protest movement broke out in March 2011, Bassam Haidar was serving at the rank of brigadier general as commander of the 24th Brigade Air Forces in Deir Ezzor, an independent brigade under the direct authority of the Air Force command overseeing the Deir Ezzor and al-Tabqa military airbases.

Haidar’s abhorrent sectarianism was known from his dealings with residents of Deir Ezzor, where he participated along with Jameh Jameh’s brigade in managing security affairs in the city. He personally participated in carrying out air raids against areas which had fallen outside regime control. He was assisted in carrying out widespread violations by his deputies, Brigadier General Sirhan al-Ali and Brigadier General Mahmoud Youssef. Brigadier General Bassam Haidar is considered to be the man of the province’s Air Force Directorate manager, Major General Jamil Hassan.

Bassam Haidar is considered to be primarily responsible for all the air raids and the crimes which were carried out by the 24th Brigade from 2011 to 2015, when the brigade’s squadrons were launched from the Deir Ezzor and Tabqa bases. As a result of the large number of such operations, all training flights were halted and flight hours were harnessed to bomb rebellious areas, especially those in the Deir Ezzor countryside and the Raqqa, Hasakeh and Aleppo countrysides.

Given the deterioration of the regime fighter planes’ condition, and the continuous flights by technically rickety aircraft which resulted in many technical failures, Brigadier General Bassam Haidar ordered that more aircraft be sent to the 24th Brigade. Four MiG-23 fighters were sent from the al-Seen airbase to the Deir Ezzor airbase, as well as four Sukhoi-22 fighters from the al-Shayrat airbase to the Tabqa airbase. These fighters (in addition to the warplanes which were already present at the 24th Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Bassam Haidar) have carried out thousands of sorties, which have cost the lives of thousands of civilians and displaced tens of thousands in the eastern regions.

Sources say that Brigadier General Bassam Haidar was the top official for military control over the skies of the northeastern region, and issued continuous instructions to pilots to bombard any gathering of people within the range of the brigade’s activity. A large number of massacres were carried out in Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside, especially in Albu Kamal and al-Muhasan, as well as in Raqqa, Ain Eissa, and the Hasakeh countryside. The most prominent were as follows:

  • The Ain Eissa massacre in the northern Raqqa countryside (20/9/2012[1]) which killed more than 30 people and wounded 150 as a result of a bombardment by MiG fighters, which struck a fuel station crowded with civilians with a number of rockets.
  • The Deir Ezzor city massacre (3/9/2012[2]) which led to the deaths of a number of civilians and wounded others and destroyed buildings.
  • The massacre of the civil registry office in Deir Ezzor (26/9/2012), which killed 15 people and wounded others.
  • The al-Joura district massacre in Deir Ezzor (27/9/2012[3]) which killed 27 people as a result of the bombardment of civilian homes.
  • The al-Basirah village massacre in Deir Ezzor (25/12/2012), which killed 22 people as a result of the bombardment of the village.
  • The massacre of al-Sheikh Yassin in Deir Ezzor city (25/10/2013[4]).
  • A massacre in the fuel oil market in the village of Abriha (13/4/2014[5]).
  • A massacre in the al-Hamidiyeh district in Deir Ezzor city (2/6/2014), which killed six civilians as a result of aerial bombardment.
  • A massacre in the al-Muhasan district in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (21/6/2014[6]), which killed 18 civilian victims.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city (25/6/2014) which killed 14 civilians.
  • A massacre in the town of Jadeed Ekedat in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (30/6/2014), which killed 10 civilians.
  • A massacre in the 1st District in Raqqa city (15/7/2014) which killed a woman and four children from a single family.
  • A massacre at the National Hospital in Raqqa city (23/8/2014) which killed 10 people, including a child and four medical staff members.
  • A massacre in al-Naeem square in Raqqa city (24/8/2014) which killed 10 people, including a child and two women.
  • A massacre in the al-Sholah area on the Deir Ezzor-Damascus road (3/9/2014) which killed 14 people, including eight women.
  • A massacre in al-Ashara town in the Deir Ezzor countryside (4/9/2014), which killed eight people, including two children and five women.
  • A massacre on Tel Abyad street in front of the al-Andalus bakery and in the al-Beyatara district in Raqqa city (6/9/2014) which killed 54 people and wounded 40 during a bombardment by warplanes with vacuum missiles.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Dabeekhan in the Deir Ezzor countryside (7/9/2014), which killed 11 people, including five children and three women during a bombardment of a school inhabited by displaced people from other towns.
  • A massacre in the al-Ardi district in Deir Ezzor city (10/9/2014) which killed eight people, including two children and three women.
  • A massacre in the al-Hseiwa village in the Raqqa countryside (16/9/2014), which killed nine people, including a child during a bombardment by regime warplanes on a residential building.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city (11/11/2014) which killed 14 people, including two children and five women.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city (19/11/2014) which killed nine people, including two children and a woman, and wounded 16 others.
  • A massacre at the water crossing between the cities of al-Boleel and al-Sabha in the Deir Ezzor countryside (28/11/2014), which killed five people and wounded six others.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city (25/11/2014) which killed 73 people, including seven children and three women, and inflicted major damage to facilities when it was struck by warplanes with nine successive raids.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city (27/11/2014) which killed seven people, including a child and two women.
  • A massacre in Raqqa city near the al-Sharaksa mosque (28/11/2014) which killed six people, including four children.
  • A massacre in the village of Hatla in the Deir Ezzor countryside (29/11/2014) which killed 12 people, including five children and four women.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Muhasan in the Deir Ezzor countryside (15/12/2014) which killed five people, including two children.
  • A massacre in the town of Khasham in the Deir Ezzor countryside (15/12/2014), which killed six people including three children and two women.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Mayadin in the Deir Ezzor countryside (16/12/2014) which killed 10 people, including four children and one woman, when the Modern Medicine Hospital in the city was struck by two rockets fired from warplanes.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Muhasan in the Deir Ezzor countryside (18/1/2015) which killed 12 people, including four children and three women.
  • A massacre in the village of Albuamr in the Deir Ezzor countryside (10/2/2015) which killed five people, including a child and a woman.
  • A massacre in the al-Syassiyah Bridge area (23/2/2015) which killed five people, including a child and two women.
  • A massacre in al-Mayadin city in the Deir Ezzor countryside (5/3/2015) which killed five people, including a child and two women.
  • A massacre in al-Mayadin city in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (7/3/2015) which killed nine people and wounded 35.
  • A massacre in the al-Hamidiyeh district in Deir Ezzor city (24/3/2015) which killed seven people, including three children.
  • A massacre in the Old Airport district in Deir Ezzor city (2/5/2015) which killed eight civilians.
  • A massacre in the village of al-Boleel in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (8/5/2015) which killed seven civilians.
  • A massacre in the Albuamr village in the Deir Ezzor countryside (8/5/2015) which killed eight civilians.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Boleel in Deir Ezzor (4/6/2015) which killed seven people and wounded ten.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Salahiyeh in the Deir Ezzor countryside (29/7/2015) which killed ten people, including two children, and wounded 15.
  • A massacre at the Modern Medicine Hospital in al-Mayadin (10/8/2015) which killed eight people, including a child and five women.
  • A massacre in the village of Jadeed Ekedat in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (16/9/2015) which killed six people, including three children and a woman.
  • A massacre in the town of Kharita in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (16/9/2015) which killed five people, including three children and a woman, and wounded more than 10 civilians when warplanes struck the town’s field hospital.
  • A massacre in the town of Marrat in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (21/9/2015) which killed 13 people, including seven children and two women, and wounded more than 30 civilians, when warplanes struck the town’s field hospital.
  • A massacre in the city of al-Mayadin (28/9/2015) which killed 25 people, including 11 children and five women.
  • A massacre in the al-Ardi district in Deir Ezzor city (19/10/2015) which killed five civilians.
  • A massacre in the city of al-Muhasan in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (17/11/2015) which killed nine civilians.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Boleel in the eastern Deir Ezzor countryside (20/11/2015) which killed five civilians.
  • A massacre in the town of al-Sousa in Deir Ezzor (12/12/2015) which killed 15 people, including seven children and seven women, in addition to wounding 13 others.

Given his bloody record, in which thousands of lives have been lost during aerial bombardments of populated areas, Bassam Haidar was transferred at the end of December 2015 to the al-Dameer military base at the rank of major general. He took command of the 20th Division, which is composed of three brigades and four airbases as follows:

  • The 17th Brigade: Deployed in the al-Seen Airbase.
  • The 30th Brigade: Deployed in the al-Dameer Airbase and al-Nasseriyeh Airbase.
  • The 73rd Brigade: Deployed in the Khalkhala Airbase.

Over the period from 2015 to 2018, Major General Bassam Haidar was responsible for all the crimes committed by the 20th Air Force Division, particularly the massacres which resulted from the aerial bombardment of the eastern Ghouta, where most of the al-Dameer Airbase flights occurred, dropping cluster bombs, incendiary explosives, and phosphorous, as well as bombs and incendiary tanks filled with napalm, vacuum bombs, and unmarked bombs which were believed to contain poison gas. The division was supplied by Russian forces.

According to a military source, internationally-banned munitions were placed in the al-Dmeir and al-Seen airbases in special warehouses under the supervision of a special technical team responsible for receiving, storing, and loading them onto aircraft, under the direct authority of the division command. The source said that the officer directly responsible for their use was the 20th Air Force Division commander at the al-Dmeir Airbase, Major General Bassam Haidar.

The source added that: “These munitions were used under orders from the Russian command which came to the division commander through the director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Major General Jameel al-Hassan, and the Air Forces commander, Major General, Ahmed Baloul, whereby the division commander Bassam Haidar would specify the planes to use these munitions and assign missions to them directly in the al-Dameer Airbase, and indirectly from the al-Seen Airbase through 17th Division commander Brigadier General Mohamed Dibou.”

According to intelligence reports, an MI-8 helicopter took off from the al-Dameer military airbase (7/4/2018) and dropped barrel bombs on the city of Douma which contained poison materials subsequently identified as a sarin gas attack[7]. The attack led to the deaths of 80 civilians who were hiding in cellars which they had used as shelters out of fear of the indiscriminate bombardment which regime forces had been carrying out on the city. This subsequently led to the displacement of more than 100,000 civilians to northern Syria.

Based on this documented information, Major General Bassam Haidar should be considered a war criminal. Syrian air forces under his command have carried out thousands of air raids in various Syrian provinces which have led to the deaths of thousands and displaced and expelled hundreds of thousands of Syrians, as well as destroying villages, towns and cities above the heads of their residents.

 

[1] Ain Eissa massacre:  https://youtu.be

fQOwAJW8A84

[2] Deir Ezzor massacre: https://youtu.be/AujOsHyspfE

[3] Deir Ezzor: https://youtu.be/BguBLSkNBlc

[4] Al-Sheikh Yassin massacre: https://youtu.be/pchDHst8GAc

[5] Fuel oil market:  https://youtu.be/E-CfPB7jTOI

[6] Al-Muhasan massacre:  https://youtu.be/ezD69ziQE7M – https://youtu.be/9UGQDaZ1njw

[7] Chemical massacre in Douma 7/4/2018:  https://youtu.be/Bl6h6fd0EKg – https://youtu.be/PeiA_mrdqzY – https://youtu.be/BV2rHo3roSM