How did 'Anna' expose the identity of Amjad Yousef, the suspect in the Tadamun massacre?
A documentary broadcast by Swedish television has shed light on the digital operation that led Syrian researcher Ansar Shahoud and an academic team to Amjad Yusuf, one of the most prominent suspects in the Tadamun massacre in Damascus. The operation involved using a fake Facebook persona named “Anna” to gain his trust and extract information and confessions regarding killing operations.
Al Jazeera, citing the Swedish documentary “Code Name: Anna,” reported that Shahoud used the fake identity to contact Yusuf after the team gained access to his account. The process began with a friend request and gradually evolved from written chats to video calls, during which his statements were documented.
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According to an extensive investigation published by The Guardian in 2022, the “Anna S.” persona was not created specifically to lure Yusuf. Instead, Shahoud had used it for years to communicate with officials and elements linked to the former Syrian regime’s security apparatus as part of her research work.
The newspaper reported that Shahoud discovered an account bearing the name Amjad Yusuf during her search and noticed that his features matched those of the man appearing in the Tadamun massacre recordings. She subsequently obtained additional information that supported identifying him and establishing his link to Branch 227 of the former Syrian military intelligence.
“Anna” sent Yusuf a friend request, and their communications later developed into video calls. During one recorded call, Yusuf stated, according to The Guardian, that he had killed many people and that he had taken revenge. When Shahoud later confronted him with a clip from the massacre recording, he admitted that the person shown was himself, before defending his actions in subsequent messages.
The most well-known recording of the Tadamun massacre dates back to April 16, 2013, and shows the killing of at least 41 men and the dumping of their bodies into a mass grave before they were burned, according to The Guardian’s investigation.
In April 2026, the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of Amjad Yusuf during a security operation in the Al-Ghab plain in the countryside of Hama, following surveillance and tracking operations. He was presented as the primary suspect in the Tadamun massacre.
The new Swedish documentary details the “Anna” operation and the years Shahoud spent building the fake persona and communicating with Yusuf, highlighting the role that digital investigation played in uncovering his identity and documenting his statements years before his detention.
