Assad is known for a brutal rule over Syria, which since 2011 has been devastated by a civil war that ravaged the country and turned it into a breeding ground for extremist group ISIS, while sparking an international proxy war and refugee crisis that saw millions displaced from their homes.
Family rule: Assad took power in an unopposed election in 2000 following the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who rose from poverty to lead the Baath Party and seized power in 1970, becoming the country’s president the following year.
Like the son who succeeded him, Hafez al-Assad tolerated little dissent with oppression widespread and periodic bouts of extreme state violence.
As a second son not poised to take up his father’s mantle, Assad studied ophthalmology in London until his older brother Bassel, who had been groomed to succeed Hafez, died in a car crash in 1994. Bashar al-Assad was then thrust into the national spotlight and studied military science, later becoming a colonel in the Syrian army.
Arab Spring to civil war: Western hopes of a more moderate Syria under Assad sank when he promptly maintained his country’s traditional ties with militant groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. They then turned to outright condemnation of the regime after he met the 2011 pro-democracy groundswell with brutal force.
Syria then descended into civil war which has lasted since then and culminated in this week’s extraordinary events.
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