A security company operating in Syria, which received over $11 million from United Nations agencies for protection services, was secretly owned and controlled by the intelligence apparatus of the former Assad government, according to internal records.
The firm, Shorouk for Protection, Guarding and Security Services, was contracted to safeguard UN facilities, including its primary base at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus. Leaked company documents, however, reveal that Shorouk was described internally as an entity “owned and controlled” by the General Intelligence Directorate, a key security organ under the previous Syrian leadership.
These findings emerge as the Assad regime has faced widespread allegations of orchestrating a campaign of detention, torture, and violence against its citizens during the nation’s protracted conflict. Despite warnings from human rights groups in 2022 about the company’s alleged connections to the regime, UN agencies continued their contractual relationship with Shorouk for two additional years.
The internal memos include a 2019 instance where Shorouk’s general manager, Wael al-Haou, forwarded a check for approximately $100,000 to the intelligence directorate, citing it as the agency’s “profit share” in the company. In a separate 2021 communication, al-Haou appealed to intelligence officials for assistance in acquiring weapons permits, asserting that Shorouk deserved preferential treatment as the sole company under the directorate’s ownership and control.
In response to inquiries, al-Hou has contested these characterizations. He stated that payments to the intelligence services were for “protection” and denied any institutional ownership of Shorouk by state bodies, claiming private ownership by himself and two other individuals, whose names he did not disclose.
UN agencies, including the Development Programme, the World Health Organization, and the World Food Program, entered into more than 130 contracts with Shorouk between 2014 and 2024. The organization has stated that its contracts with the firm adhered to UN standards and that Shorouk remains an active contractor, providing security not only for individual agencies but also for shared UN premises in Damascus.
Analysts have raised significant concerns regarding these financial arrangements. Critics argue that directing aid money through a regime-linked security contractor effectively bankrolled a state apparatus accused of severe human rights violations, even as the UN worked to deliver humanitarian assistance within the country.
