Bashar al Assad’s downfall marks an finish to greater than half a century of household rule, as insurgent forces turned the tide in a civil conflict he had embraced.
The authoritarian president dominated Syria for twenty-four years, 5 years wanting his father’s time in energy, however the plan was by no means for him to take over the dynasty.
Earlier than his political profession started to take form, Assad was based mostly within the UK, the place he had an ophthalmology apply.
Damascus ‘freed’ of Assad – stay updates
A household tragedy would quickly thrust him into the political fray – and his early days in Damascus stood in stark distinction to his exit.
Eye physician and laptop geek
Earlier than Damascus, Assad was a watch physician in London and his solely official place in his house nation was as head of the Syrian Laptop Society.
Within the UK capital, he met his future spouse, Asma Akhras, a former funding banker at JPMorgan who grew up in Acton, west London.
She ditched her profession for Assad after a visit collectively to Libya as a visitor of then chief Muammar Gaddafi.
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Bashar al Assad and his spouse Asma in 2010. Pic: AP
In 1994, Assad’s older brother – and inheritor to the presidency – Bassel was killed in a automobile crash in Damascus.
Assad was promptly ordered again house, the place he was put by means of navy coaching and elevated his rank to colonel to ascertain his credentials for ruling.
However there was by no means any doubt he would take over. When his father Hafez al Assad died in 2000, parliament shortly lowered the presidential age from 40 to 34.
To prime it off, his elevation was confirmed after a nationwide referendum pitted him as the one candidate.
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Bashar al Assad at navy coaching video games in 2000. Pic: AP
Hopes for a younger reformer
Assad started his presidency with guarantees to combat corruption and to open up the media. He inherited a dilapidated nation and lacked help from his father’s loyalists.
Considered as one thing of a geek, the lanky Assad continually tried to show himself regardless of his mild manner, not least to his fearsome mom, whom the president’s spouse additionally struggled to impress.
He had shortly freed political prisoners and allowed extra open discourse. Within the “Damascus Spring” – briefly sprung after his father’s dying – salons for intellectuals emerged to debate artwork, tradition and politics.
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Bashar al Assad and his spouse Asma greeted by Tony Blair exterior 10 Downing Road in 2002. Pic: AP
However these had been snuffed out after 1,000 intellectuals signed a public petition calling for multiparty democracy and larger freedoms in 2001.
He slowly lifted financial restrictions, let in international banks, made approach for imports and empowered the non-public sector.
Syrian cities started to see procuring malls, new eating places and shopper items, whereas tourism rose.
International coverage blow
However overseas, he caught to the road his father had set, based mostly on an alliance with Iran and a coverage of insisting on a full return of the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.
In 2004 the UN Safety Council ordered Syria to finish its lengthy occupation of neighbouring Lebanon, leaving Assad with a selection: comply and smash a few of his father’s legacy, or ignore it.
He selected the previous – this angered his household.
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Syria troopers pulling out of Lebanon in 2005. Pic: AP
Progressively, Assad began to consider the West was weak and believed the extra he demonstrated power, the extra he would obtain.
In 2005, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated, killed by a bomb whereas driving in Beirut. The Syrian authorities was blamed.
Syria was compelled to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and a pro-American authorities got here to energy as an alternative.
Syrian civil conflict
A number of years after going towards his father’s legacy, Assad would draw on his brutal techniques when protests erupted towards his rule in March 2011, through the Arab Spring.
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The Syrian Struggle defined – did it ever finish?
However actuality quickly bit, after protesters within the southern metropolis of Daraa had been shot useless by authorities forces, sparking nationwide unrest.
Full-blown civil conflict would escape, which might change into the world’s largest refugee disaster, in keeping with the UN.
Greater than 14 million Syrians have been compelled to flee their properties searching for security, the physique studies.
Atrocities
Since then, Assad’s rule has been dogged by widespread accusations of atrocities, together with the usage of chemical weapons akin to sarin, chlorine, and mustard gasoline.
In 2013, a gasoline assault on rebel-held japanese Ghouta close to Damascus killed scores of civilians.
There have additionally been widespread studies of rape, beheadings and torture.
Assad was propped up largely due to Russia – who stepped in to hold out decisive airstrikes in 2015 – and Iran, who each backed Syria militarily.
In 2020, Moscow backed a authorities offensive, which ended with a ceasefire with Turkey and froze most entrance traces.
Assad held most territory and all major cities, showing deeply entrenched, whereas rebels held the northwest and a Turkey-backed drive stayed at a border strip.
Kurdish-led forces, in the meantime, managed the northeast.
After authorities forces bombarded the northwest rebel-held area of Idlib in 2020 – killing civilians within the course of – Assad had appeared to consolidate his iron-fist rule.
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President Bashar al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July 2024. Pic: AP
The downfall
Few noticed an finish to his presidency within the close to future, however simply as Assad’s fortunes relied on Moscow and Tehran, so too was his destiny tied to their geopolitical priorities.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lasting virtually three years and Iran rocked by Israeli assaults on its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian authorities defences had been uncovered.
Insurgent forces launched an assault on the northern metropolis of Aleppo, which the federal government had held since 2016, and inside days stormed by means of the nation.
Assad had initially vowed to combat again, with the navy claiming they had been getting ready a counter-offensive.
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Toppled Assad statue dragged by means of streets
However the insurgents continued to comb their method to Damascus, the place Assad had insisted he remained as lately as Saturday night.
He has not been seen within the capital since rebels claimed full management and Russia has mentioned he has left the nation – including he gave “instructions to transfer power peacefully”.
Whereas Syrians took to the streets to chant for freedom and celebrated his downfall, what comes subsequent for the nation – and who governs it – stays shrouded in uncertainty.
