Syrians mourn a former chess champion as her death is confirmed 13 years later

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of people have flocked to a tent in Damascus to mourn a former national chess champion who went missing 13 years ago along with her husband and six children, now that their deaths in Syria's civil wa r have finally been confirmed.

Surviving relatives of Rania al-Abbasi announced Sunday that they had seen evidence that she and her family had been killed by pro-government gunmen shortly after they were detained in 2013, and that they would set up a giant tent in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday to receive condolences.

“We had hope. We’ve been looking for them for 13 years in every way possible,” Rana's brother Wael al-Abbasi said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Then we got the horrible news that they were killed the same day they were arrested.”

The case of Rana al-Abbasi, who also was a dentist and who had been accused of funding the opposition, was well-known in Syria, and this week's revelations have received wide coverage in the country's news media. Photos of the family have been all over social media. Many people have said the killers should be sentenced to death.

Mohammad Shukri, Syrian minister of religious affairs, visited the tent in the Rukneddine neighborhood on Tuesday and said the country's new government is making sure that the culprits are held accountable. “They must get their punishment,” he said.

More than 100,000 people went missing in areas once controlled by forces loyal to now-ousted President Bashar Assad and many are believed to have died under torture run by the country’s powerful security agencies. The number could be higher, because many Syrians were too scared to complain under Assad, now in self-exile in Russia. Some people are now coming forward requesting information about missing loved ones.

During the early years of Syria’s conflict, which started with pro-democracy protests and later became a civil war, many people were killed, and the fate of many remains unknown. The conflict left nearly half a million people dead.

The fate of the al-Abassi family was revealed following the arrest of an ex-intelligence officer, who allegedly was involved in the killings, surviving family members said. Amjad Yousef had appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades fatally shooting dozens of people during the country’s civil war.

Al-Abbasi’s family was shown another video that was not made public showing the children dead after apparently being strangled or beaten to death.

Wael al-Abbasi said that his brother-in-law, Abdul-Rahman al-Yassin, was detained on March 9, 2013 while his wife and children were detained four days later.

“We were holding on to hope to find one or two of the kids (alive),” he said.

Yousef, the ex-intelligence officer, was arrested by Syria's new authorities in April in the central province in Hama where he had been hiding. He has been undergoing questioning since then.

Wael al-Abbasi said he and other relatives saw a video in which Yousef was talking and pointing the camera at the children in a dark room that may have been part of a detention center.

“He was filming the kids and naming each one of them. Those were our kids, there was no room for doubt that it’s them, they were even wearing the same clothes,” he said.

The children’s ages were from 1 1/2 to 14. They were identified as Ahmad, Dema, Najah, Intisar, Alaa and Layan. He said a couple of them had their faces bloodied.

The brother said he hoped that Yousef and others involved in the killings would go on trial and be hanged. “They’re criminals and we have proof of that through videos. We want the whole chain, all the way up to Bashar Assad. We want them all to hanged.”

Since the fall of Assad, several top officials in his government and security agencies have been detained and some have been put on trial.

Al-Abbasi’s cousin, Doa’a al-Abbasi, said that the family had been worried that the children might have been trafficked, but now they know the truth.

“What is this brutality? What is this hatred? They waited for them to come home from school so he can kill them,” she said, referring to the children. “There are many people like Amjad Yousef and we hope they will all be held accountable."

Residents gather to mourn former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi and her family, who disappeared 13 years ago, after relatives announced Monday they had evidence the family was killed by pro-government gunmen in 2013, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Residents gather to mourn former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi and her family, who disappeared 13 years ago, after relatives announced Monday they had evidence the family was killed by pro-government gunmen in 2013, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Doa'a al-Abbasi, cousin of former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi, attends a gathering to mourn al-Abbasi and her family, who disappeared 13 years ago, after relatives announced Monday they had evidence the family was killed by pro-government gunmen in 2013, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Mohammad Shukri, Syrian minister of religious affairs, speaks during a gathering to mourn former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi and her family, who disappeared 13 years ago, after relatives announced Monday they had evidence the family was killed by pro-government gunmen in 2013, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Residents gather to mourn former chess champion Rania al-Abbasi and her family, who disappeared 13 years ago, after relatives announced Monday they had evidence the family was killed by pro-government gunmen in 2013, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A man held 10 people hostage inside a California office building before the FBI shot and killed him early Wednesday, bringing the more than 15-hour standoff to an end, police said.

The hostages were found unharmed inside the downtown Bakersfield building that houses a bank and a school district office, the Bakersfield Police Department said in a statement.

Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, was shot and killed around 4:20 a.m., according to Sid Patel, of the FBI's Sacramento field office. Patel said the suspect has a history of violence and is a registered sex offender.

The standoff began around 1 p.m. Tuesday when officers responded to a call of a bomb threat at the Chase Bank building, a four-story office building with dark-tinted glass windows all around. Police said the man had barricaded himself inside with several people.

The department’s crisis negotiation team talked with the suspect by telephone and eventually two hostages were released Tuesday night, police said.

Nearby buildings, including City Hall and the police headquarters that are just a block away, were evacuated and some roads were temporarily closed during the hostage situation. Bakersfield, a city of about 380,000 residents, is the seat of largely rural Kern County and is about 100 miles (160 kms) northeast of Los Angeles.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said the bank branch is on the ground floor.

Officers established a perimeter around the area and warned the public to stay away.

“We have every single resource at our disposal out here to bring this to the safest resolution possible,” Bakersfield police Sgt. Eric Celedon said Tuesday.

Jacob Davidson, a livestreamer known as Dad’s Gone Live, was a block from the bank at his family’s tattoo shop when he started getting calls about the bomb threat.

“I went into the bank’s parking garage and watched the cops enter the back of the bank. This is the biggest police presence I’ve ever seen in this town,” Davidson said.

His livestream captured through a window in the building a woman rocking back and forth Tuesday night before crouching below the window. Later, two hands could be seen waving.

FBI agents respond after a man barricaded himself inside a building with hostages Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Bakersfield, Calif. (AP Photo/David Dennis)

Family members, wait a block away from a bank building where a man barricaded himself inside with hostages, Tuesday, June 3, 2026 in Bakersfield, Calif. (AP Photo/Erick Madrid)

FBI agents respond after a man barricaded himself inside a building with hostages Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Bakersfield, Calif. (AP Photo/David Dennis)