As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training in London as an ophthalmologist.

Jan 22, 2025 · While the political future remains uncertain, young Syrians are taking their newfound sense of freedom to the streets. Mount Qasioun, a hill overlooking Damascus that was off-limits under Assad, is now alive with food and shisha vendors.

Dec 13, 2024 · Bashar al-Assad fled the country, relinquishing control of the presidency. Waking up to an Assad-free Syria, after 54 years of tyrannical rule, was a reality I never thought I’d …

Dec 8, 2024 · BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country on Sunday, bringing to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for …

6 hours ago · Assad's forces detained mothers and children and sent many of the youth to orphanages. Syrians whose children vanished during the war are now seeking information on their fate. NPR investigates.

Dec 11, 2024 · How young Syrians feel about the fall of Bashar Al-Assad. Paraic O'Brien Foreign Affairs Correspondent . How young Syrians are reacting to the fall of Bashar Al-Assad.

Jan 27, 2025 · Hamada spent years describing to Western officials the torment that he and countless others—including Motasem Kattan, above—had endured in Syrian prisons. Since the regime fell, the evidence of a...

3 days ago · Young men. The elderly. Children. Later it would be entire families. Almahzan spent two long years using his camera to log the daily tyranny the regime visited upon his fellow citizens. The Syrian ...

Dec 8, 2024 · Hopes for a young reformer Assad began his presidency with promises to fight corruption and to open up the media. He inherited a dilapidated country and lacked support from his father's loyalists.

5 hours ago · His sons keep asking him about their older missing siblings too, particularly their sister, Islam. She was 5 when she disappeared. If she's still alive, Islam would be 17. Al-Farra's young sons only know her as a little girl, from a photo al-Farra keeps on his phone: Islam is smiling. Her sandy hair touches her tanned shoulders.