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US Sanctions Assad's Son, Syrian Army Unit

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - The United States designated 14 Syrian individuals and
   entities for sanctions Wednesday, including President Bashar al-Assad's
   eldest son and a division of the Syrian Army. '¯

   "It is time for Assad's needless, brutal war to end," U.S. Ambassador
   to the United Nations Kelly Craft told a Security Council meeting on
   the humanitarian situation in Syria. "This, above all, is what our
   sanctions campaign is meant to bring about."'¯

   The designations are under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act,
   which was enacted last month, as well as a 2011 Executive Order. '¯

   The Caesar Act takes its name from the alias of a Syrian defector who
   smuggled out of the country tens of thousands of images of the torture
   and executions happening in Syrian government prisons in the early days
   of the conflict.'¯A forensic photographer for the military police, he
   had taken many of the images himself. '¯

   "We have named today's tranche of designations the Hama and Maarat
   al-Numan sanctions," Craft said. '¯

   Craft said the name memorializes the victims of atrocities carried out
   in those cities in 2011 and 2019, respectively. '¯

   In June 2011, as the popular uprising against Assad intensified,
   government forces killed dozens of peaceful protesters in Hama. In July
   2019, the government carried out airstrikes in the northwestern town of
   Maarat al-Numan, killing more than 40 people in the bombing of the
   city's market. '¯

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