Assad officer extradited to Syria on war crimes charges for first time

Lebanon has handed Syria a former general who served under the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad, in the first extradition of its kind since his government fell.

Maj Gen Adel Issa, 67, is accused of a raft of crimes allegedly committed during the Syrian civil war, which ended in December 2024 when rebel forces took the capital, Damascus, and Assad fled.

Issa was detained on 8 August after visiting the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork and was transferred into Syrian custody on Wednesday.