Issam Zahr ad-Din

Background Zahreddine was born in the small rural village in 1961.

Syrian civil war Zahreddine commanded the Republican Guard's 104th Brigade in Douma and Harasta alongside Brigadier General Manaf Tlass before the latter's defection. According to testimony from a defector to Human Rights Watch, Zahreddine ordered the systematic beating of arrested protestors in Douma during the civil uprising phase of the Syrian Civil War;

As the Syrian Civil War escalated, Zahreddine became one of the most prominent and high-ranking members of the Druze community in Syria fighting for the government. As result, he has been widely criticized by pro-opposition and anti-war Druze: The leader of the Lebanese Druze, Walid Jumblatt, accused him of "fighting against his own people", and Zahreddine was also singled out by a group of Druze religious leaders meeting in As-Suwayda in February 2013 as an individual deserving of death, in a statement otherwise decrying the use of violence by both sides. Among pro-Assad Druze in Syria including the Golan Heights, however, he was regarded as a "hero" and had many followers.

Zahreddine was sent in early 2012 to Homs where the SAA offensive against rebel groups was culminating in the siege and Battle of Baba Amr, in which his troops surrounded the neighbourhood, blocked supply routes and shelled it. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Colvin's family provided evidence that the Syrian government had tracked Colvin from Lebanon, triangulated the call to the Homs Media Center, and confirmed her location with a local informant, and that then, under orders from Maher al-Assad, the Homs units of the Syrian Republican Guard and Special Forces targeted her location, using a method known as bracketing, where multiple rockets were launched to either side, drawing closer with each round, before hitting it directly. The lawsuit alleged that Zahreddine planned the artillery attack along with Ali Mamluk, Director of Syria's National Intelligence Bureau and Rafiq Shahadah, former Director of Military Intelligence. French photographer Remi Ochlik was killed and British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian interpreter Wael al-Omar were wounded in the same attack. While there, he became known for frequently visiting the front line and interacting with ordinary soldiers. On 27 November 2013, while commanding his forces in al-Rashdiya district, Zahreddine was wounded in the leg by a bullet.

In 2016, he was pictured posing next to hanging corpses of ISIS fighters that appeared to have been tortured and cut up

On 5 September 2017, Zahreddine was congratulated by President Bashar Assad for his role at Deir ez-Zor during the over 3-year long siege of the city by ISIS. He used the occasion to thank allies for lifting the siege and tell Syrian refugees to "never return", saying that "even if the state forgives you, we will never forgive nor forget". In a subsequent audio message, however, Zahreddine claimed that he had meant that only those who had taken up arms against the Syrian Army should not return.

Personal life Issam's oldest son, Yarob,

Death On 18 October 2017, Zahreddine was killed when his vehicle hit an ISIL land mine in Hawija Saqr near Deir Ezzor as he was conducting an operation against ISIL.

On the night of 30 April 2025, amidst armed clashes in southern Syria, in which the Syrian Armed Forces General Security Service occupied the native village of Zahreddine, As-Sawra al-Kabira, (located on the northern edge of Al-Surah al-Saghirah district), the shrine and museum was burned and destroyed by the attacking forces. Images of the burning and destruction of the tomb of Zahreddine was largely shared and celebrated on pro-HTS social media accounts. No party officially claimed the destruction of the shrine, which was blamed on the collective attacking forces of the armed Deraa bedouins, the newly formed Syrian Army and the General Security forces.