15.10.2026 12:43
In 2013, terrorist Mihraç Ural (Ali Kayyali), a fugitive suspect in the bomb attack in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district that killed 53 people, was captured in Syria while trying to escape. Cemal Trablusi, an aide to Ural accused of planning the attack, had also been captured 11 days earlier by teams affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Interior.
It was announced that terrorist Mihraç Ural, whose extradition Turkey has sought for years, was captured in Syria. The news of the capture of Ural, who is among the most wanted suspects in the Reyhanlı attack, was announced by SANA.
SANA ANNOUNCED: HE WAS CAPTURED WHILE FLEEING
According to a report by Syria's official news agency SANA today, Mihraç Ural, who used the name “Ali Kayyali” in Syria, was captured while trying to flee. Details regarding where, when, and by which unit Ural was captured have not yet been shared. No statement has been made by Turkish authorities on the matter either.
HIS DEPUTY WAS CAPTURED 11 DAYS AGO
In a written statement on October 4, the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced that Ural's deputy, Cemal Trablusi, was captured by Counter-Terrorism Branch teams. No location or date information was provided regarding the capture of Trablusi, who was stated to have served as the Aleppo representative and office director of the militia group called “Mukavemet-i Suriye” (Syrian Resistance), led by Ural during the civil war period in Syria.
53 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES IN REYHANLI
In the attack carried out with 2 bomb-laden vehicles in the Reyhanlı district of Hatay on May 11, 2013, 53 people lost their lives and 155 people were injured. Ural, stated to be a leader of the THKP-C/Acilciler organization, was accused in the indictment of planning the attack.
In the case, Ankara 9th High Criminal Court sentenced 9 defendants to aggravated life imprisonment 53 times each in February 2018. The file of the fugitive defendants, including Ural, was separated. In the separated file, a verdict was announced on June 5, 2026, and Memet Gezer, Temir Dükancı, and Cengiz Sertel were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment 53 times each. Ahmet Tuna, President of the Reyhanlı May 11 Martyrs Association, stated at the verdict hearing that Ural was still a fugitive and called for his capture.
WHO IS MIHRAC URAL?
Born in Antakya in 1956, Ural studied philosophy at Istanbul University. Detained in 1978 due to a bank robbery, Ural escaped from the prison where he was held in Adana in 1980 through a tunnel he dug and fled to Syria. Ural, who was granted citizenship by the Hafez al-Assad administration in Syria, established close relations with the Assad family.
Since 1986, Ural led the pro-Assad militia group that he founded under the name “Iskenderun Sanjak Liberation People's Front,” which later took the name “Syrian Resistance.” It was also alleged that Ural was involved in the massacres that occurred in Syria's Baniyas and Bayda regions in 2013. Ural denied the accusations.
HIS EXTRADITION HAD BEEN REQUESTED FOR YEARS
Turkey had been requesting Ural's extradition for many years. Then-Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at the Sochi meeting in February 2018, “We want this person to be captured immediately and extradited to Turkey.”
Ural was claimed to have been killed in 2016, but it was understood that this claim was not true. Ural was seriously injured in a bomb attack targeting his vehicle in Latakia in July 2019. After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Ural, who disappeared, was thought to be hiding in Syria.