NYT: Syrian general accused of torture worked for Mossad

Former Syrian army general Khaled al-Halabi (62) has been charged with war crimes in Vienna.

According to The New York Times, he was a Mossad agent, and it was the Israeli intelligence service that helped him evade justice in Europe.

Brigadier General of Syrian intelligence Khaled al-Halabi is a member of Syria’s Druze minority. In 2001, he was assigned to Syrian intelligence and took part in the brutal suppression of the 2011–2013 uprising in Syria. When demonstrations swept the country in March 2011, Syrian security services began detaining and interrogating people. Among them was al-Halabi’s unit.

According to victims, the security forces focused on finding protest organisers and activists who were sending video footage of the demonstrations to international media. As the number of protests grew, security forces began using firearms. Torture to extract information became routine.

Many plaintiffs who suffered torture said it sometimes occurred right in al-Halabi’s office. According to the investigation conducted by Austrian authorities, in March 2013, as fighting intensified, al-Halabi defected — fleeing Raqqa, illegally crossing into Türkiye, and several months later reaching Paris via Jordan.

According to the charges, al-Halabi was a Mossad intelligence agent in Syria, and it was Mossad that requested his transfer to Austria. Mossad agents escorted al-Halabi from France and handed him over to Austrian intelligence officers at the border. Their colleagues in Austrian intelligence and an immigration official helped the general obtain asylum and settle in Vienna — the “storied city of spies.” The Syrian general lived in an apartment paid for by Mossad (according to the NYT report).

“The Austrian government and intelligence service helped Mossad and helped their war criminals,” Mr. Almousa said, a Syrian lawyer who was once detained by al-Halabi’s unit.

It took investigators years to track down al-Halabi. They located the Syrian general after he posted a photo of himself on a bridge in Budapest on social media. He has been in prison since December 2024.

By Vugar Khalilov