A photograph of Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar, overthrown in December 2024. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
Rifaat al-Assad, late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad's brother, died Wednesday at the age of 88, according to two sources cited by Reuters. He embodied the brutality of the Assad clan, which ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades. After the Assad regime’s fall in December 2024, he took refuge in the United Arab Emirates. He initially tried to flee Syria via a Russian airbase but was turned back before leaving the country through Lebanon, Reuters reported. How? How Syrian regime bosses made their great escape His death sparked widespread reactions on Syrian social media, with some users saying sarcastically that he had “joined his older brother Hafez al-Assad in hell.”Rifaat al-Assad left a deep mark on Syria in the early 1980s, when he played a central role in crushing dissent. On June 26, 1980, amid growing...
Rifaat al-Assad, late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad's brother, died Wednesday at the age of 88, according to two sources cited by Reuters. He embodied the brutality of the Assad clan, which ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades. After the Assad regime’s fall in December 2024, he took refuge in the United Arab Emirates. He initially tried to flee Syria via a Russian airbase but was turned back before leaving the country through Lebanon, Reuters reported. How? How Syrian regime bosses made their great escape His death sparked widespread reactions on Syrian social media, with some users saying sarcastically that he had “joined his older brother Hafez al-Assad in hell.”Rifaat al-Assad left a deep mark on Syria in the early 1980s, when he played a central role in crushing dissent. On June 26, 1980, amid...
