Al Jazeera leaks: Plots by remnants of the Assad regime against the new government in Syria have been revealed

Documents and recordings obtained by Qatar’s Al Jazeera channel, which are expected to be shown as part of an investigative investigation in February, have reported that the remnants of the former Syrian regime have moved from the stage of general reorganization to the stage of careful field management of their movements on the ground.

According to the documents, some of the details of which were revealed by the channel on Friday, these groups rely on dividing cities and regions, especially on the Syrian coast, into armed neighborhoods that operate as independent and interconnected units, allowing them to move quickly and reposition, and are difficult to deal with as a single body.

The information obtained by the channel showed that this structure isn’t based on random movements, but rather on a hierarchical organizational structure that ends at the neighborhood level, where small groups are tasked with carrying out specific tasks, within a vision aimed at creating a flexible spread that is difficult to dismantle or paralyze easily.

According to the structure prepared within these networks, businessman Rami Makhlouf, Bashar al Assad’s cousin, heads the so-called Supreme Defense Council, followed by his aides, former Special Forces commander Suhail al Hassan, and former Brigadier General Ghayath Dala, as one of the most prominent field supervisors.

After this senior command, the areas were divided into geographical sectors, each with a commander and those responsible for recruitment, armament, and financing, before these sectors were subdivided into smaller sections, leading to armed groups distributed in residential neighborhoods.

The documents indicate that this model has been applied in several cities and towns, including Latakia, Tartous, Masyaf, Dreikish, Sheikh Badr and Baniyas, as well as areas in Homs, Tal Kalakh, Suqailbiyah and the al Ghab plain.

The recordings reveal that former Brigadier General Ghayath Dalla played a pivotal role in following up on this field structure, through his continuous communication with the leaders of the groups, and his quest to find out the number of fighters in each area and the amount of funding required to continue the activity.

The data shows that Dalla lives in Lebanon in a cautious security situation, and constantly changes his place of residence and phone numbers, while relying on his son, a former officer, for his movements and the management of some communication lines.

In one recording, Dala notes that the number of fighters associated with his groups reached about 42,000 by April 2025, with anti-armor weapons, including Kornet and Concourse missiles, as well as heavy machine guns.

The names of group leaders who have played direct field roles also appear, including Bassel Mohammed, who is linked to Suhail al Hassan, who claimed to have some 10,000 fighters in the Sahel and the Ghab Plain, and communicated with the perpetrators of the Sahel attacks last March.

The documents also reveal the role of Miqdad Fatiha, the commander of a militia called the Coast Shield Brigade, whose leaks show the number of his fighters and their distribution in Tartous, Jableh, Dreikish and Beit Yashut, within a wider coordination network that intersects with other sectors.

In the Sahel sector, the name of former Brigadier General Mustafa Hashem, whose involvement in the recent Sahel attacks is highlighted, along with his accusations against former Military Intelligence chief Kamal al Hassan, of fueling the armed movement.

This detail shows that the regime’s remnants adopted a model based on breaking up the force into small units that spread within the urban fabric, allowing for rapid movement and repositioning, and difficult to deal with as a single body.

These data come in a broader context in which Al Jazeera has previously revealed, through leaked documents, attempts led by prominent figures in the ousted regime to reorganize its ranks, open external channels of support, and use Lebanon as a platform to manage some movements.

The recordings and documents date from April to December 2025 and are scheduled to be broadcast in full in the middle of next month on Al Jazeera’s “The Detective” show.

Al Jazeera obtained more than 74 hours of recordings and more than 600 documents, revealing precise details of the attempts of the remnants of the former regime to reorganize themselves and coordinate roles between prominent military and security figures who held leadership positions in the regime’s structure.

Al Jazeera said on Wednesday evening that the recordings and documents were leaked to the investigative program from a Syrian who managed to hack into the phones of a group of Assad regime officers.

It added that this person deceived them that he was an officer of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad), who wanted to cooperate and coordinate with them to support their movements in the coast, which gave him access to sensitive conversations and recordings related to military plans and movements.

The recordings include an explicit praise from Suhail al Hassan for Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera.

Commenting on the leaks, Ahmed Mowaffaq Zeidan, media advisor to the Syrian president, said on X: “Perhaps the most important revelation of the leaks of the Al Jazeera investigation is the readiness of the Assad gangmen to coordinate with everyone, even the Israeli entity, in the hope of occupying an inch of Syria’s beloved land, which they were falsely accusing the leaders of the revolution of”.

Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab on Wednesday sent firm messages to the remnants of the old regime, stressing that the new state born from the womb of liberation won’t go back a single moment.

“Let the remnants of the former regime and its criminal gangs, who insist on continuing their absurd approach and spreading chaos, murder and sabotage, wait for their inevitable fate, and let this message serve as a final warning for them to stop what they are doing,” Khattab said.

The warning came after a series of bloody incidents that took place in recent days at the hands of the former regime’s gangs.

On Sunday, gunmen targeted security forces while protecting demonstrations in cities on the Syrian coast and in the center of the country, called by the Alawite spiritual authority, killing 4 people and wounding 108 security forces and civilians in the city of Latakia.

On that day, the governorates of Latakia, Tartous, Hama and Homs witnessed demonstrations demanding federalism and the right to self-determination, following a terrorist attack on a mosque in an Alawite-majority neighborhood in Homs province that resulted in 8 deaths.

The new authorities in Syria insist that all communities of the population are equal before the law and enjoy uniform rights without any discrimination.