Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, has long been suspected of leading an armed group loyal to then President Bashar al-Assad during the 2013 massacres in the villages of Bayda and Ras al-Nabaa in the Baniyas region. According to figures from the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) quoted by SANA, at least 264 civilians including 36 children and 28 women were killed in Bayda, while 195 people including 56 children died in Ras al-Nabaa.
Human Rights Watch described the 2013 killings as one of the deadliest instances of mass executions in Syria's increasingly bloody conflict. Militias affiliated with Kayali are also accused of committing massacres in the Latakia, Aleppo and Idlib countrysides, leaving hundreds dead or wounded.
Kayali, born in 1956 in Hatay, Turkey, fled to Syria in 1982. SANA reported that he is married to Malak al-Fadel from Syria's Alawite community, the religious minority to which al-Assad belongs. Turkiye's state run Anadolu news agency identified Kayali as the main suspect in the 2013 twin bombings in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, which killed at least 52 people.
Earlier this month, authorities arrested Kayali's deputy Jamal Tarabulsi, as Syrian security forces intensify efforts to capture former regime officials and militia commanders accused of crimes against civilians during the country's civil war. Syria's war began with pro democracy protests in 2011 and ended with the ousting of al-Assad in 2024 by a rebel group that took power in a lightning offensive.