intelligence officer

Atef Najib

عاطف نجيب

Also known as: Atef Najeeb • the man who started the revolution

Journeys

Atef Najib: The Cousin Who Started a War

The Syrian revolution did not begin with an ideology, a party, or a plan. It began with a man who arrested children, then insulted their parents. Atef Najib's cruelty in a small southern city in February 2011 set off a chain reaction that outlasted every calculation the regime ever made.

Biography

Atef Najib was Bashar al-Assad's maternal cousin and head of the Political Security Directorate in Daraa. In late February 2011, his forces arrested fifteen schoolchildren — aged ten to fifteen — who had written revolutionary graffiti on their school walls. The children were held for weeks and tortured. When their parents came to plead for their release, Najib told them to forget their children and make new ones. That cruelty turned grief into rage and ignited the Syrian revolution. He was sanctioned by the EU and US but never prosecuted. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Documentation Status

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Journeys1

Key Facts

Place:Syria

Nationality:Syrian