On November 12, 2025, the Ministry of Interior of the interim authority in Syria, “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” announced the execution of a “special” operation in the Sheikh Badr area in the Tartous countryside, which resulted in the arrest of 13 people, among them Dr. Ez-al-Din al-Saraqibi, a professor of periodontology and the head of the Department of Oral Medicine at the Faculty of Dentistry at Hama University.
The ministry published a photo of Dr. al-Saraqibi and described him as “one of the remnants of the regime,” in a statement that mentioned the seizure of large quantities of weapons and ammunition and digital documents, and accused the group of participating in hostile acts, assassinating civilians, and recruiting children. Academic sources later confirmed that the person shown in the photo is Dr. al-Saraqibi, a well-known and respected academic with no connection to any of the mentioned activities, which raised surprise and questions regarding the accuracy of the classification and the standards applied.
It is worth noting that the incident took place within a broader context that includes the arrest of Sheikh Abdul-Ghani Qassab and two of his sons as part of the same operation, amid conflicting accounts regarding his role and mutual accusations ranging from describing him as “an agent of the former regime and Iran” to describing him as “an independent religious figure.” The raid was also accompanied by concerns among the area’s residents about possible executions and the unclear nature of the charges.
