Jumaa Mohamed al-Jassem

General information
Place of birth: Seraa – Idleb
Date of birth: 1954
Specialization: Army and Armed Forces

Current service position
Dismissed at the end of August 2018 after his service was extended for four years as director of the Artillery and Rockets Directorate

Previous service positions
1- Transferred to retirement (End of August 2018).
2- Director of Artillery and Rockets Directorate (Before 2011).
3- Officer in Artillery and Rockets Directorate.

Jumaa al-Jassem was born in the village of Seraa in the eastern Idleb countryside in 1954 and belongs to the al-Haddadeen tribe known for its loyalty to the regime. This is the same tribe to which former Defense Minister Brigadier General Fahed Jassem al-Freij also belongs.

Major General Jumaa al-Jassem is considered to be responsible for crimes, violations, and destruction affecting the houses and homes of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure in populated areas as a result of the use of artillery and rockets considered to be among the deadliest weapons, as well as warplanes and helicopters.

The regime had begun to use artillery and rockets against opposition areas in 2011, and when the conflict developed, it began to use surface-to-surface “Scud” missiles against populated cities and districts, killing hundreds and displacing thousands of Syrians. The regime tasked Major General Jumaa with implementing a number of artillery and rocket bombardment operations in Homs city, in particular the Baba Amr district. He also led battles in the eastern Hamah countryside and the northern Hamah countryside. His responsibility for a number of battles was documented^[1], especially the violations which occurred during his command of the battles around the al-Seen airbase and the city of Palmyra in 2016.

Major General Jumaa al-Jassem also participated in military operations in the eastern Idleb countryside, and was rewarded for this with the appointment of his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Jassem as the Sinjar mayor, and his other brother as secretary of the party division in the town (he had previously been working as a fuel oil seller). These appointments came as an answer to Major General Jumaa’s repeated requests to the members his tribe to join the army to compensate for the numerical shortage in the regime forces.

Major General Jumaa al-Jassem is directly responsible for all the crimes which carried out with rockets and artillery, especially those by the 155^th Brigade. A report^[2] issued by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (2/3/2013) documented members of the 155^th Brigade firing 61 Scud rockets on 59 populated civilian locations and just two rockets on Free Syrian Army positions.

The network also issued a report^[3] (9/6/2013) in which it documented regime forces launching 131 rockets in the following areas:

Aleppo province: 71 rockets, killing 214 people and wounding more than 580.
Raqqa province: 10 rockets, killing 14 people and wounding 92 others.
Idleb province: 19 rockets, killing three people and wounding 29 others.
Deir Ezzor province: 15 rockets, wounding three people.
Damascus countryside province: 11 rockets, killing 23 people and wounding more than 103 others.
Hamah province: Five rockets, killing three people and wounding more than 33 others.
Homs province: Struck by an unspecified number of surface-to-surface long-range missiles in the al-Qusair area, killing and wounding a large number of people which remains undocumented because of the area being blockaded and communications being cut off.

A list^[4] has been document including 257 people killed during rocket bombardments, including 84 children and 54 women. About 1,000 were also wounded, in addition to 1,127 people killed in the eastern Ghouta during the chemical attacks (August 2013), an attack which was conducted with rockets loaded with chemical materials.

The following list includes some of the massacres committed with artillery weapons under the command of Major General Jumaa al-Jassem^[5]:

Information	Number killed	Date	Governorate	Massacre	M
On 7/8/2011, Syrian regime forced committed a massacre in the city of Deir Ezzor, killing 90 people when the Syrian regime bombed the city with heavy artillery and tank shells.	90	7/8/2011	Deir Ezzor	Deir Ezzor Massacre	1.
On 8/2/2012, Syrian regime forces committed a massacre in the Baba Amr district of Homs, killing more than 100 people in the preliminary toll, as a result of heavy artillery, rocket and mortar bombardment, as well as missile launchers and Shilka bullets, and destroying more than 80 percent of the district.	100	8/2/2012	Homs	Baba Amr Massacre	2.
On 9/2/2012, regime forces committed a massacre in the city of al-Rastan in Homs, killing 106 people as a result of bombardment with heavy artillery and mortars.	106	9/2/2012	Homs	Al-Rastan Massacre	3.
On 16/8/2012, regime forces carried out a massacre in the Qadi Asker district of Aleppo city which killed 41 people during artillery bombardment of the automated bakery in the district. It was then bombed against on 19/8/2012, killing a large number, with 25 documented.	41	16/8/2012	Aleppo	Automated Bakery Massacre in Qadi Asker District	4.
On 11/1/2014, regime forces carried out a massacre in the al-Waer district of Homs city, killing 28 people, including a child and two women when the Syrian regime struck the district with artillery.	28	11/1/2014	Homs	Al-Waer District Massacre	5.
On 6/5/2014, regime forces carried out a massacre in the city of Taybat al-Imam in the Hamah countryside, killing eight people, including a child and a woman, when striking the city with artillery shells.	8	6/5/2014	Hamah	Taybat al-Imam City Massacre	6.
373 killed			Total

In addition to this list, thousands of people have been killed or wounded, and hundreds of thousands displaced, as a result of the regime using artillery and rockets against populated civilian areas. Major General Jumaa al-Jassem bears direct responsibility for these crimes, given his role as director of the Rockets and Artillery Directorate.

Major General Jumaa al-Jassem was dismissed in August 2018, and followed by Major General Akram Tajjour as commander of the Rockets and Artillery Directorate. Bashar al-Assad had extended Major General Jumaa’s work by four additional years—he had been scheduled to retire in 2014, but Assad had retained him to ensure his loyalty and the loyalty of his tribe’s members in the regime forces.

Major General Jumaa is directly related to the former parliament member Sheikh Ahmed Darwish. His son serves in the regime forces at the rank of first lieutenant.

^[1] Major General Jumaa al-Jassem visiting Sixth Border Guard Regiment: https://youtu.be/HoMLEJWMLqI

^[2] http://sn4hr.org/publ

^[3] http://sn4hr.org/public_html/wp-content/pdf/arabic/Research_about_using_Syrian_Government_for_more_than_131_long.pdf

^[4] https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBeV9XdEdUV3dPM0U/edit

^[5] Hundreds of massacres have been documented resulting from artillery and rocket strikes on areas rebelling against the regime of Assad family rule.