Recent leaks broadcast by Al Jazeera shed new light on the behavior of senior figures from Syria’s ousted Assad regime. The recordings document phone calls between a “hacker,” known as “Akif,” posing as an officer in Israel’s Mossad and former regime commanders Suhail Hassan and Brig. Gen. Ghiath Dallah. According to Al Jazeera, the material contains over 74 hours of audio and 600 documents obtained by deceiving the pair into believing they were speaking with Israeli intelligence.
The calls reinforce a long-established pattern. Officials who rose through the ranks under Bashar al-Assad did so through absolute loyalty and a readiness to use extreme violence. Hassan, commanded the “Tiger Forces,” elite units sanctioned and accused by the US and EU governments of mass killings and attacks on civilians.
Willingness to Seek Any Patron
What distinguishes the leaks is not the brutality associated with these figures, but their apparent readiness to cooperate with any external power to regain influence. In the recordings aired by Al Jazeera, Hassan repeatedly sought support from the person he believed to be a Mossad officer, saying “at your service,” according to the network’s transcript. He also claimed businessman Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, was financing efforts by regime remnants along the Syrian coast.
Ghiath Dallah appeared in the same recordings and confirmed coordination among former officers. Dallah, a longtime enforcer within the Fourth Division led by Maher al-Assad, is linked by rights groups to large-scale civilian deaths, including the 2012 Darayya massacre that killed hundreds.
Expert Views on Fragmentation Risks
Abdurahman al-Hajj, a researcher specializing in Islamist movements, told the New Arab that the leaks point to competition among former regime factions seeking leadership within the Alawite community. He said one bloc led by Makhlouf, Hassan and Dallah pursued contacts with Israel and coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while other factions maintain ties with different external backers.
Hajj added that the depth of the leaked material suggests a sophisticated intelligence operation exposing funding, personnel and planning. “The penetration at this level fully revealed the project and its tools,” he said.
A Legacy That Still Shapes Syria
The disclosures come as Syrian authorities say they are confronting armed groups linked to the Assad regime. Interior Ministry spokesman Nouruddin al-Baba said the documents show a willingness by remnants to cooperate with Syria’s enemies to pursue separatist agendas, according to Al Jazeera.
An investigation by The New York Times also reported former Assad officers work from abroad to stir unrest and rebuild networks. Together, these reports underline a broader reality. The collapse of the Assad regime did not end the influence of its inner circle. Instead, the leaks show that many of its figures continue to operate with the same tactics that defined decades of rule, prioritizing power and survival over the country they once governed.
