The Tadmor “Palmyra ” Prison Massacre (Syria) occurred on 27 June 1980, the day after a failed attempt to assassinate Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. Tadmor Prison was one of the main prisons in Syria that was holding political opponents of Assad’s regime. In retaliation to this assassination attempt, members of the units of the Defense Companies, under the personal direction of Rifaat al-Assad, brother of the president, entered into Tadmor Prison and massacred about a thousand prisoners in the cells and the dormitories
