Jump to content

Assad family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Assad family
عَائِلَةُ ٱلْأَسَدِ
The Assad family, c. 1993.

Rear, left to right: Maher, Bashar, Bassel, Majd, and Bushra al-Assad.

Front, left to right: Anisa Makhlouf and Hafez al-Assad.
Parent family
CountryBa'athist Syria
Place of origin
Qardaha, Latakia Sanjak, Ottoman Empire
Founded1875; 151 years ago (1875)
FounderAli al-Assad
Final rulerBashar al-Assad
MembersAli al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad
Bassel al-Assad
Maher al-Assad
Rifaat al-Assad
Hafez Bashar al-Assad
Connected members
Asma al-Assad
Anisa Makhlouf
Connected families
Makhlouf, Shalish
TraditionsAlawism
Deposition8 December 2024

The Assad family[a] ruled Syria from 1970 to 2024, spanning the rule of Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar al-Assad. From 1963 until the collapse of Ba'athist rule in 2024, Syria was governed by the Ba'ath Party, and under the Assad family from 1971 onward, it became a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship.[1][2][3] The Assad family was referred to as the Assad dynasty.[4][5]

The Assad family originated from Qardaha, in the Latakia Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire. They belonged to the Alawite Kalbiyya tribe. In 1927, Ali Sulayman al-Wahsh, Hafez al-Assad's father, who was born in 1875 and lived in the village of Qardaha in the Syrian coastal mountains, changed his surname from al-Wahsh, Arabic for "the savage", to al-Assad, meaning "the lion". This change was possibly connected to his social standing as a local mediator and his political activities. All members of the extended Assad family descended from Ali Sulayman and his second wife, Naissa, who came from a village in the Syrian Coastal Mountains.[6][7]

The Assad family's rule began when Hafez al-Assad seized power in the 1970 coup d'état. He became president in 1971 under the Syrian Ba'ath Party following a sham election and ruled until his death in 2000. He was succeeded by his son, Bashar al-Assad, who maintained a similar grip on power until he was ousted on 8 December 2024 during a major offensive by opposition forces.[8][9][10] During his early reign in the 1970s, Hafez al-Assad created patronage networks of Ba'ath party elites loyal to his family. Members of the Assad family established control over vast swathes of the Syrian economy, and corruption became endemic in the public and private sectors.[11] After Hafez's death, family connections continued to be important in Syrian politics. Several close family members of Hafez also held vital positions in the government since his rise to power, an arrangement which existed until the fall of the Assad regime.[12][13] The Syrian bureaucracy and business community were also dominated by members of the Assad family and individuals affiliated with them.[14][15]

The Assad family is affiliated with the Alawite sect, a syncretic religious tradition with links to early Shi'ism. Since coming to power in 1970, the Assad family has traditionally relied on support from Alawite communities as an important component of its political rule. Many Alawites were appointed to key positions in the bureaucracy, security forces, military, judiciary, and other state institutions, helping consolidate the Assad family's grip on power.[16] Hafez al-Assad built his regime into a bureaucracy that was marked by a cult of personality. Images, portraits, quotes and praises of Assad are displayed everywhere from schools to public markets and government offices. Hafez was referred to as the "Immortal Leader" and the al-Muqaddas ("Sanctified One") in official Assadist ideology. Hafez re-organised Syrian society in militaristic lines and persistently invoked conspiratorial rhetoric on the dangers of foreign-backed plots abetted by fifth columnists and promoted the armed forces as a central aspect of public life. After Hafez al-Assad's death, his son and successor Bashar al-Assad inherited the existing personality cult, with the party hailing him as the "Young Leader" and "Hope of the People". Drawing influence from the veneration of the Kim dynasty in North Korea's hereditary leadership model led by Kim Il Sung, official propaganda in Syria ascribed divine features to the Assad family and revered the Assad patriarchs as the founding fathers of modern Syria.[17][18][19]

Opposition to the Assad family's rule coalesced into the Syrian Civil War, which began on 15 March 2011. On 8 December 2024, Bashar al-Assad was reported to have fled Damascus, signalling the end of the Assad family's rule in Syria. Following the fall of the Assad regime, Bashar al-Assad and his family, including his wife Asma al-Assad, fled to Moscow, Russia. However, remnants and loyalists of the Assad regime subsequently engaged in a conflict against the new Syrian government.[20][8][21]

Origin

[edit]

The Assad family originates from Ali Sulayman al-Wahsh, Hafez al-Assad's father who was born in 1875 and lived in the village of Qardaha in the coastal Syrian mountains. The locals reportedly nicknamed him "Wahsh", Arabic for "wild beast", because he was physically strong and a good fighter. Al-Wahsh remained the family name until the 1920s, when it was changed to al-Assad, Arabic for "lion".[22][23]

Because of Sulayman's reported strength and marksmanship, he was respected in his village. At the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman governor of the Aleppo Vilayet sent troops to the area to collect taxes and round up recruits. The troops were reportedly fought off by Sulayman and his friends who were armed only with sabres and old muskets.[24] Because Sulayman was respected, he was a local mediator between quarreling families. He was also one of the local chieftains who were the de facto rulers of the area. The chieftains from the powerful families would provide protection to their neighbours and in return they gained loyalty and respect.[25] He lived until 1963, long enough to see his son's rise to power. He married twice and over three decades had eleven children. His first wife Sa'ada was from the district of Haffeh. They had three sons and two daughters. His second wife was Na'isa, twenty years younger than him. She was the daughter of Uthman Abbud from the village of Al-Qutailibiyah, a dozen kilometres further up the mountain. They had a daughter and five sons. Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 and was the fourth child.[26]

Al-Assad family is affiliated with the Alawite sect, a syncretic sect with links to early Shi'ism. Since coming to power in 1970, the Assad family traditionally used sectarian loyalty from the Alawite sect as a vital component to legitimize their dynastic rule. Many Alawite loyalists were assigned to crucial posts in the bureaucracy, security forces, military, judiciary, etc., in-order to consolidate Assad family's grip on power.[16]

Syria under the Assad family (1970–2024)

[edit]

Hafez al-Assad

[edit]
Hafez al-Assad

Hafez al-Assad was born on 6 October 1930, in Qardaha, a town in northwest Syria. He was born into a poor Alawite peasant family belonging to the Kalbiyya tribe of Alawites.[27][28][29] Later, Assad recalled at the congresses of the Peasants' General Union: "I had a passion for threshing the harvest... But I took part in all the phases of farming..., lived your emotions and understand what your life signifies. I still have mental pictures of the injustices of the time. No matter how far the past sinks away, it is necessary to keep these images alive in our minds, not to nurse hatred against anyone but to see into them, for what we endured forms an essential part of the way we view things and of the foundation on which we build the present and the future."[30] His paternal grandfather, Sulayman al-Wahhish, gained the nickname al-Wahhish (wild beast) for his strength.[24]

Hafez al-Assad's parents were Na'isa Shalish and Ali al-Assad.[31] His father married twice and had eleven children.[26] Hafez was his ninth son and the fourth from his second marriage.[31] Hafez al-Assad married Anisa Makhlouf and had five children: Bushra al-Assad, Bassel al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad, Majd al-Assad, and Maher al-Assad.[32] The couple also had a daughter named Bushra, who died in infancy before 1960.[33]

The Ba'athist regime emerged in 1963 following a coup d'état led by Alawite Ba'athist military officers.[34][35] Another coup in 1966 brought Salah Jadid to de facto power, while Nureddin al-Atassi assumed the presidency.[35][36] In 1970, Jadid and al-Atassi were overthrown by Hafez al-Assad during the Corrective Movement.[37] The Assad family's rule began when Hafez al-Assad seized power in the 1970 coup d'état and became President of Syria in 1971 following a sham election held under the Syrian Ba'ath Party. Under Hafez, Ba'athist Syria became a police state that suppressed dissent. Following his death in June 2000, he was succeeded by his son, Bashar al-Assad.[36][38][39][40]

Bashar al-Assad

[edit]
Bashar al-Assad

Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, as the second son and third child of Anisa Makhlouf and Hafez al-Assad.[41][42] Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military.[43][44][45] The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father,[46] and Bashar later stated that he only entered his father's office once while he was president.[47] He was described as "soft-spoken",[48] and according to a university friend, he was timid, avoided eye contact and spoke in a low voice.[49]

Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus.[43] In 1982, he graduated from high school and then studied medicine at Damascus University.[50] In 1988, Assad graduated from medical school and began working as an army doctor at Tishrin Military Hospital on the outskirts of Damascus.[51][52] Four years later, he settled in London to start postgraduate training in ophthalmology at Western Eye Hospital.[53] He was described as a "geeky I.T. guy" during his time in London.[54] Bashar had few political aspirations,[55] and his father had been grooming Bashar's older brother Bassel as future president.[56] Shortly after Bassel died in a car accident in 1994, Bashar was recalled to the Syrian Army. State propaganda soon began elevating Bashar's public image as "the hope of the masses" to prepare the public for a continuation of the rule of the Assad dynasty.[57][58]

Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafez al-Assad decided to make Bashar the new heir apparent.[59] After the death of Hafez al-Assad on 10 June 2000, the Constitution of Syria was amended. The minimum age requirement for the presidency was lowered from 40 to 34, which was Bashar's age at the time.[60] The sole candidate of the presidential referendum, Assad was subsequently confirmed president on 10 July 2000, with 97.29% support for his leadership.[61] In line with his role as President of Syria, he was also appointed the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party.[62]

Bashar's presidency was marked by authoritarian rule and the suppression of political dissent. His government faced mounting criticism over corruption, human rights abuses, and its violent crackdown on the 2011 protests, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.[63] His rule as president was a highly personalist dictatorship[64][65] that governed Syria as a totalitarian police state,[66] becoming arguably more repressive than his father.[67] The war involved numerous international actors, with countries like Russia and Iran supporting Assad's regime, while opposition groups received backing from Western and regional powers.[68] In November 2024, a coalition of Syrian rebels launched several offensives aimed at overthrowing Assad's government. On 8 December 2024, the Assad family's rule collapsed after rebel forces entered and captured Damascus, the Syrian capital, during the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives. Assad and his family subsequently left Syria for Moscow, the Russian capital, where they were granted asylum.[69][70][71] In August 2026, Bashar al-Assad was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a Syrian court and sentenced to death in absentia.[72][73]

Cult of personality

[edit]

In no other country in recent memory ... not Mao's China, nor Tito's Yugoslavia, has the intensity of the personality cult reached such extremes. Asad's image, speaking, smiling, listening, benevolent or stern, solemn or reflective, is everywhere. Sometimes there are half a dozen pictures of him in a row. His face envelops telephone poles and trucks, churches and mosques. His is the visage a Syrian sees when he opens his newspaper.

A square in Aleppo displaying the statue and portrait of Hafez al-Assad (2001)

During the 1950s, Syrian Alawites started becoming influential in the Syrian Armed Forces and Ba'ath Party. Led by Alawite military officers, like Salah Jadid, Ba'athist factions staged a series of coups during the 1960s and built up a one-party state. The party cemented its total control over the state and society by purging civilian elites, pursued an aggressive propaganda policy of "state-nationalist indoctrination" and established patronage networks based on sectarian lines to mobilise support.[76] Following the 1970 coup d'etat that ousted his rival Salah Jadid; Hafez al-Assad developed a Stalinist-style personality cult around him; which depicted him as the father figure of Syrian nation. After Hafez's death, the personality cult was extended to his son, Bashar al-Assad. Monuments, pictures, statues, symbols and billboards of both the leaders extensively pervade Syrian society, designed to consolidate the notion of "Assad's Syria". Observers view the state propaganda efforts as a strategy for securing the compliance of the masses and identifying Syrian nationhood with the Assad dynasty.[77][78][79][80][81]

In addition to criminalising any and all critiques of the regime; the modes of conveying messages between the state and civil society were restricted strictly within bounds of what is officially acceptable. The state further banned private political opinions critical of the regime and encouraged citizens to report relatives and friends who exhibited undesirable attitudes. The policies of economic liberalization implemented during the 2000s worsened the corruption because the chief grantees of the outcomes were businessmen and relatives close to the Assad family, such as Rami Makhlouf.[82][83][84]

Unlike other Arab dictatorships, this feature of the Ba'ath regime and the total centralisation of power in the hands of the Assad patriarchs enabled it to instill apoliticism amongst its citizens; where the ritualisation of state slogans and symbolism had led to de facto compliance. As a result, there were far fewer avenues of free political activism for ordinary Syrians as compared to other Arab states. Until recently, political activism was shunned by many people; instead preferring the stability offered by the regime. The rise of internet and satellite channels alongside the proliferation of civil society groups and independent political activists during the 2000s increasingly began to challenge state monopoly on information, which led to rising political dissidence amongst the younger generations.[84][85][82][83] Describing the hardships to raise the political consciousness of Syrian citizens by contrasting their situation with other Arab protestors, Caroline, a Syrian Christian and civic activist imprisoned by regime during the 2011–12 Arab Spring protests, states:

"Before the revolution in Egypt, people were allowed to gather, had political parties; people were exposed to political life. In Syria, we were away from politics. We were raised in Syria and our parents used to tell us that we shouldn't talk with anyone about our religion or about politics."[86]

Since Hafez al-Assad's seizure of power in 1970; state propaganda promoted a new national discourse based on unifying Syrians under "a single imagined Ba'athist identity" and Assadism. Fervently loyalist paramilitaries known as the Shabiha (tr. ghosts) deify the Assad dynasty through slogans such as There is no God except Bashar! (Arabic: لا إله الا بشار) and pursue psychological warfare against non-conformist populations.[87]

Hafez's family

[edit]
President Hafez al-Assad with his family in the early 1970s. Left to right: Bashar, Maher, Anisa Makhlouf, Majd, Bushra, and Bassel

Hafez al-Assad

[edit]
  • Hafez al-Assad (1930–2000). President of Syria 1971–2000.[88][89][90]
  • Anisa Makhlouf (1930–2016), wife of Hafez and First Lady of Syria.[91]
    • Bushra al-Assad, died as an infant before 1960.[92]
    • Bushra al-Assad (born 1960) is a pharmacist and a mother of five children,[93] and was married to General Assef Shawkat (1950–2012), who was deputy-chief of staff of the Syrian army and the former head of military intelligence. He was killed on 18 July 2012 in a bombing in Damascus, during the Syrian Civil War.
    • Bassel al-Assad (1962–1994), was the original candidate for presidential succession but died in a car accident.[94]
    • Bashar al-Assad (born 1965), was the President of Syria until 8 December 2024. Before Bassel's death he was an ophthalmologist. He is married to Asma al-Assad (born 1975). She was the First Lady of Syria and took a prominent public role until 8 December 2024. Before being married, she was an investment banker. They have three children (Hafez Bashar, Zein and Karim).[13][95] The couple were also regarded as the "main economic players" in Syria and controlled large parts of Syrian business sectors, banking, telecommunications, real estate, and maritime industries.[14] In August 2026, Bashar al-Assad was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a Syrian court and sentenced to death in absentia.[72][73]
    • Majd al-Assad (1966–2009), was an electrical engineer with a reported history of severe mental problems.[96] He was married to Ru'a Ayyoub (born 1976) and had no children.[97] Majd died in Damascus on 12 December 2009 after a long unspecified chronic illness.[98][99][100]
    • Maher al-Assad (born 1967), is the former commander of the Republican Guard, which are also known as the Presidential Guard, and the army's elite Fourth Armored Division, which together with Syria's secret police formed the core of the country's security forces.[101] He is also a member of the Ba'ath Party central command and is said to have an aggressive and uncontrollable personality. He is married and has two daughters.[98][102] He is reported to have been severely disabled in a 2012 bombing in Damascus during the Syrian civil war.[103][104] He reportedly shot Assef Shawkat in the stomach in October 1999, during an argument. Maher is also known by many to be the most ruthless in the Al-Assad family.[105] He has been linked to "overseeing a Captagon factory in al-Basa" and production centres in the Qalamoun Mountains.[106] He is sanctioned by the US government.[106] In August 2026, a Syrian court sentenced Maher al-Assad to death in absentia as part of a ruling against several former regime officials.[107]

Hafez's siblings

[edit]

Jamil al-Assad

[edit]
  • Jamil al-Assad (1932–2004), parliamentarian and commander of a minor militia. Politically marginalized years before his death.[13]
    Children:
    • Mundhir al-Assad (born 1961), was arrested in 2005 at the Beirut Airport while entering Lebanon.[13] He was reported to have been involved in arms smuggling to the Iraqi insurgents.[108] In 2011, the EU placed sanctions on him for being involved with the Shabbiha militia in the repression of protestors during the Syrian Civil War.[102][109]
    • Fawwaz al-Assad (1962–2015), was the first real Shabiha and gave the meaning known today to the word Shabiha and the concept of Tashbeeh that is to act like a thug.[110] He had sanctions placed on him in 2011 by the EU for being involved with the Shabbiha militia in the repression of protestors during the Syrian Civil War.[108][109]
    • One daughter is married to Yarob Kanaan, whose father is Ghazi Kanaan (1942–2005), who in 2005 during his term as interior minister presumably killed himself. The Kanaans come from the Kalabiyya tribe.[111]

Rifaat al-Assad

[edit]
Rifaat al-Assad and Hafez in the early 1980s
  • Rifaat al-Assad (1937–2026). Formerly a powerful security chief and commander of the Defense Companies, who was responsible for the 1982 Hama massacre. After attempting a coup d'état in 1987, he went into exile in France and also lived in London.[112] He is married with four wives:
    Amira 'Aziz al-Assad (died 2019), a cousin.[111]
    Sana' Ismail Makhluf (died 2021), from the family of Hafez's wife.[111]
    Rajaa Bakrat, from a wealthy Sunni Damascene family.[111]
    Lina al-Khayer, sister of Hessa bint Tarad al-Shaalan, wife of the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (1924–2015).[111]
    Rifaat has a number of children from these marriages, including:
    • Ribal al-Assad (born 1975), has lived abroad since he was nine years old; currently he lives in the United States. In an interview in 2010, he denied that his father was involved in the massacre of Hama or that his family's branch was connected to Abdul Halim Khaddam (1932–2020) or Ghazi Kanaan.[112]
    • Somar al-Assad, supports his father actively in his opposition to Bashar.[111]
    • Lamia, is married to 'Ala al-Fayad, the son of Shafiq Fayadh (former Syrian General).[108][111][113]
    • Mudar al-Assad, is married to May Haydar, daughter of the Syrian multimillionaire Muhammad Haydar.[114]
    • Tumadhir, is married to Mu'ein Nasif Kheirbek also from the Kalabiyya tribe and related to Mohammed Nasif Kheirbek (1937–2015), who is indirectly related by marriage and blood to Abd al-Halim Khaddam, Rafic Hariri (1944–2005) and the influential Homs al-Atassi family.[111]
    • Firas al-Assad, accused his cousin, President Bashar, of killing more than 100,000 Alawites and more than half a million Syrians to stay in power.[115]

Shalish family

[edit]
  • Sister of Hafez al-Assad married into the Shalish family. The family through paternal cousin General Dhu al Himma al-Shalish maintains a significant level of influence in the Bashar al-Assad government. The Shalishes are mainly active in the automobile and construction sectors.
    • General Dhu al-Himma Shalish (1951–2022), a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, was the head of presidential security and was part of the inner circle of leadership of the Bashar al-Assad government.[116][117] He had sanctions placed on him by the US government for supplying weapons to Saddam Hussein and his government.[116][118] On 24 June 2011, the EU sanctioned him for being involved in violence against demonstrators during the Syrian Civil War.[119]
      • Asef Isa Shalish, nephew of Dhu al-Himma, is the manager of SES, a company that was involved in the weapons trade with Iraq and Iran.[98][113][120]
    • Riyad Shalish, a cousin of Bashar Assad and the former director of the governmental construction organization the Military Housing Establishment, which during the 1990s he managed to transform into his own company. He made a fortune on construction and contracting deals in Syria involving large scale projects financed by other Arab states. On 24 June 2011, the EU sanctioned him for providing funding to the regime to repress protesters of the Syrian Civil War.[119][121]

Ahmed al-Assad

[edit]
  • Ahmed al-Assad (1910–1975), was an older half-brother of Hafez from Ali's first wife Sa'ada.[122]
    • Anwar al-Assad,
      • Hilal al-Assad (died 2014), was the president of the Syrian Arabian Horse Association. Hilal was killed on 22 March 2014, during the 2014 Latakia offensive in the battle for a border crossing at Kessab with Turkey in the north of Latakia.[123]
        • Suleiman al-Assad, Hilal's son, was arrested in August 2015 after allegedly murdering an off-duty colonel in a 'road rage' incident in Latakia.[124] He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but in late 2020 was released after four years.[125] In December 2024, video of a man being lynched and hung from a crane after the fall of the Assad regime went viral with the claim that it depicted Suleiman, but this was false.[126]
      • Hael al-Assad, was the head of the Military Police of the army's 4th Armoured Division, whose official commander is Maher al-Assad. He is also the director of the prison in which Maher al-Assad keeps his personal prisoners outside of state jurisdiction.[122]
      • Haroun al-Assad, is an elected municipal official of the village of Qardaha.[122]
      • Daad al-Assad, is married to General Zouheir al-Assad, who was born in 1958 and is a distant cousin. Zouheir al-Assad commanded the 90th Regiment, a unit of some 10,000 men, charged with protecting the capital.[122]
        • Karam Al Assad, led a group of Shabiha. He and his group of shabiha led an assault against the peaceful protests during the "night of destiny". The assault ended in two deaths and dozens injured.[122]

Isma'il al-Assad

[edit]
  • Isma'il al-Assad (1913–?) was an older half-brother of Hafez from Ali's first wife Sa'ada.
    • Tawfiq al-Assad,
      • Muhammad al-Assad (died 2015), another leader of the "Struggle companies". He was killed in a dispute with a powerful person over control in the al-Qerdaha area of Latakia province, on 14 March 2015.[127]
        • Hussein al-Assad, son of Muhammad. He took over the criminal network of his father and reorganized it into a paramilitary unit, the Lions of Hussein.[128]

Ibrahim al-Assad

[edit]
  • Ibrahim al-Assad, was an older half-brother of Hafez al-Assad from Ali Sulayman's first wife Sa'ada. He was married to Umm Anwar who took over the smuggling business of her son Malek.[129]
    • Malek al-Assad was the first known smuggler in the Assad family.[129]

About Hafez's siblings who died early—Bayat, Bahijat and an unknown sister—almost nothing is publicly known.[6]

Anisa's siblings

[edit]

Makhlouf family

[edit]

The Makhloufs belong to the Alawi Haddad tribe,[111][130] both Hafez and Rifaat are related through marriage to the Makhloufs. The Makhlouf family rose from humble beginnings to become the financial advisor to Hafez al-Assad after the former President married Makhlouf's sister. The family headed by Mohammad Makhlouf has established a vast financial empire in the telecommunication, retail, banking, power generation, and oil and gas sectors. The net worth of the family was estimated in 2010 to be at least five billion dollars.[98][131]

  • Mohammed Makhlouf (1932–2020),[132] made a fortune, both through management of state companies and in the private sector.[133]
    • Rami Makhlouf (born 1969), is a wealthy businessman and the main owner of Syriatel.[98] According to the Financial Times he is thought to control as much as 60% of the economy through his web of business interests that include telecommunications, oil and gas, construction, banking, airlines and retail, and he is widely seen as the business arm of the Assad government.[102][134] He is regarded as Syria's wealthiest man – worth approximately 5 billion dollars.[135] In 2020, intense dispute arose between Makhlouf and Bashar al-Assad over the issue of backtaxes; which severely damaged Assad's reputation amongst Alawite loyalists.[136]
    • Hafez Makhlouf (born 1971), was the deputy director of the General Security Directorate and intelligence chief of the Damascus branch.[137][102][134][138][139][116]
    • Iyad Makhlouf (born 1973), twin of Ihab Makhlouf, is a General Security Directorate officer. The EU, US,[140] and UK[141] sanctioned him for being involved in violence against the civilian population during the Syrian Civil War.[109]
    • Ihab Makhlouf (1973–2024), twin of Iyad Makhlouf, was former Vice-Chairman of Syriatel[142] and caretaker for Rami Makhlouf's US company. The EU sanctioned him for providing funding to the Assad government and allowing violence against demonstrators in the Syrian Civil War.[109] He was believed to be in charge of the sniper units that were being used to shoot at protestors in the uprising.[143] He was killed in his car on 8 December 2024, after the Fall of the Assad regime.
  • Fatima Makhlouf, sister of Anisa Makhlouf.
  • General Adnan Makhlouf, first cousin of Anisa, former commander of the Republican Guard.[147]
  • General Talal Makhlouf, cousin of Anisa, former commander of the Republican Guard.[148]

Hafez's cousins

[edit]

Other relatives

[edit]
  • Numeir al-Assad, second degree cousin of Hafez's children, led the Shabiha in Latakia.[13] He was imprisoned following a heist in 2005 at Sednaya Prison and remained there until December 2024. He was later recaptured in October 2025.[153][154]
  • Nizar al-Assad, is a cousin of Bashar Al-Assad. He was the head of the Nizar Oilfield Supplies company. He was sanctioned by the EU for being very close to key government officials and for financing Shabiha in the region of Latakia.[119]
  • Fawaz al-Assad, nephew of Hafez, leader of Shabiha[155]
  • Mundhir al-Assad, nephew of Hafez, leader of Shabiha[155]
  • Samer al-Assad, son of Kamal and grandson of Ismael who was a half-brother of Hafez al-Assad, runs one of several Captagon factories in Al-Bassah.[156]
  • Duraid Assad, husband of Rasha Khazem and the father of Shams Assad. Rasha and Shams Assad were smuggled into Lebanon after the fall of the Assad Regime and were arrested in the Beirut international airport because of owning a fake passport.[157]
  • Wassim al-Assad, cousin of Bashar al-Assad and a former militia leader. Arrested in June 2025 by Syrian authorities for drug trafficking and war crimes after years of leading pro-regime militias and operating in the Captagon trade.[158][159][160] On 18 August 2026, he was found guilty for crimes including premeditated murder and torture and sentenced to death by the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus.[161]
  • Ammar al-Assad, cousin of Bashar al-Assad. Known for early involvement in smuggling and local criminal networks in Latakia, reportedly under the protection of his uncle Jamil al-Assad.[162]
  • Fawaz Akhras is a British-Syrian cardiologist, the father-in-law of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and chairman of the British Syrian Society. On 9 December 2024, the day after the fall of the Assad regime, Akhras was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for providing "support and facilitation to Bashar al-Assad in financial matters, sanctions evasion, and efforts to secure international political engagement." His daughter, Asma, married Bashar al-Assad, then president of Syria, in 2000.[163][164][165]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ Arabic: عَائِلَةُ ٱلْأَسَدِ, romanized: ʿāʾilat al-ʾAsad

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Citations
  1. ↑ Zelinskyi, A. (5 May 2024). "The Father and the Son al-Assad: the Common and Different Features of a State Policy". Problems of World History (25). ISSN 2707-6776.
  2. ↑ "Al-Assad: The Presidency That Never Ends". Civil Rights Defenders. Retrieved 15 September 2026.
  3. ↑ Sources:
    • Khamis, Sahar; Gold, Paul B.; Vaughn, Katherine (2013). "Chapter 22: Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's 'Cyberwars': Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics". In Auerbach, Jonathan; Castronovo, Russ (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 422. ISBN 978-0-19-976441-9.
    • Wieland, Carsten (2018). "Chapter 6: De-neutralizing Aid: All Roads Lead to Damascus". Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-7556-4138-3.
    • Ahmed, Saladdin (2019). Totalitarian Space and the Destruction of Aura. Albany, NY: Suny Press. pp. 144, 149. ISBN 9781438472911.
    • Hensman, Rohini (2018). "7: The Syrian Uprising". Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-912-3.
  4. ↑ "After Fall of Assad Dynasty, Syria's Risky New Moment | Council on Foreign Relations". www.cfr.org. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  5. ↑ "The rise and fall of the Assad Dynasty". The Business Standard. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
  6. 1 2 Martin Stäheli: Die syrische Außenpolitik unter Hafez Assad, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07867-3; p. 40
  7. ↑ McConville, Patrick Seale with the assistance of Maureen (1990). Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-520-06976-3. Kalbiya seale.
  8. 1 2 "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left Damascus to an unknown destination, say two senior army officers". Reuters. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  9. ↑ "Fall Of Assads: How An Alawite Family Ruled Over A Sunni Nation For Decades". NDTV. Archived from the original on 9 February 2026. Retrieved 15 September 2026.
  10. ↑ "How the Assad family built an empire of fear in Syria". 9 December 2024.
  11. ↑ M. Sadowski, Yahya (1987). "Patronage and the Ba'th: Corruption and Control in Contemporary Syria". Arab Studies Quarterly. 9 (4): 442–461. JSTOR 41857946.
  12. ↑ Robin Wright (22 February 2008). "Sanctions on Businessman Target Syria's Inner Sanctum". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). Comparative Strategy. 25 (5): 380. doi:10.1080/01495930601105412. S2CID 154739379. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  14. 1 2 "Changes to Syria's Business Elite Concentrates Wealth in Hands of Presidential Couple". The Syria Report. 15 November 2022. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022.
  15. ↑ Cornish, Chloe; Khattab, Asser (25 July 2019). "Syria's Assad puts pressure on business elite". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019.
  16. 1 2 Baltacioglu-Brammer, Ayse (November 2013). "Alawites and the Fate of Syria". OSU.EDU. Ohio State University. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023.
  17. ↑ Halasa, Malu; Omareen, Zaher; Mahfoud, Nawara (2014). Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline. London: Saqi Books. pp. 125, 147–156, 161. ISBN 978-0-86356-787-2.
  18. ↑ Pipes, Daniel (1995). Syria Beyond the Peace Process. Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute for Near East Policy. pp. 6, 7, 13–17. ISBN 0-944029-64-7.
  19. ↑ Shamaileh, Ammar (2017). Trust and Terror: Social Capital and the Use of Terrorism as a Tool of Resistance. New York: Routledge. pp. 66, 70–72, 82. ISBN 978-1-138-20173-6.
  20. ↑ نخست‌وزیر سوریه: مرحله جدیدی آغاز شده/ از محل حضور اسد اطلاعی ندارم (Syrian Prime Minister: A new phase has begun/I have no information about Assad's whereabouts)
  21. ↑ "Syrian government appears to have fallen in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family". AP news. 7 December 2024.
  22. ↑ Zahler 2009, p. 25.
  23. ↑ Alianak 2007, p. 128.
  24. 1 2 Seale 1990, p. 3.
  25. ↑ Seale 1990, p. 4.
  26. 1 2 Seale 1990, p. 5.
  27. ↑ Bengio 1998, p. 135.
  28. ↑ Jessup 1998, p. 41.
  29. ↑ Reich 1990, p. 52.
  30. ↑ Batatu, Hanna (17 September 2012). Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-4584-2.
  31. 1 2 Alianak 2007, pp. 127–128.
  32. ↑ "Hafez al-Assad". Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  33. ↑ "Anisa Makhlouf". The Independent.
  34. ↑ "Background Note: Syria". United States Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, May 2007. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  35. 1 2 "Syria: World War II and independence". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 23 May 2023. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  36. 1 2 Eyal Zisser (2004). "Bashar al-Asad and his Regime – Between Continuity and Change". Orient. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  37. ↑ Seale, Patrick (1988). Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06976-3.
  38. ↑ Kmak, Magdalena; Björklund, Heta (2022). Refugees and Knowledge Production: Europe's Past and Present. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 73. doi:10.4324/9781003092421. ISBN 978-0-367-55206-0. S2CID 246668129.
  39. ↑ Turku, Helga (2018). "3: Long-Term Security Repercussions of Attacking Cultural Property". The Destruction of Cultural Property as a Weapon of War. palgrave macmillan. p. 74. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57282-6. ISBN 978-3-319-57282-6.
  40. ↑ Darke, Diana (2010). Syria (2nd ed.). Bradt Travel Guides. p. 311. ISBN 978-1-84162-314-6.
  41. ↑ Zisser 2007, p. 20.
  42. ↑ "بشار الأسد.. رئيس سوريا المخلوع". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 25 February 2026. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  43. 1 2 Zisser 2007, p. 21.
  44. ↑ Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). Comparative Strategy. 25 (5). The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy Institute for Policy and Strategy: 16, 379. doi:10.1080/01495930601105412. S2CID 154739379. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  45. ↑ Ciezadlo, Annia (19 December 2013). "Bashar Al Assad: An Intimate Profile of a Mass Murderer". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  46. ↑ Khalaf, Roula (15 June 2012). "Bashar al-Assad: behind the mask". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  47. ↑ Belt, Don (November 2009). "Syria". National Geographic. pp. 2, 9. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  48. ↑ Sachs, Susan (14 June 2000). "Man in the News; The Shy Young Doctor at Syria's Helm; Bashar al-Assad". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  49. ↑ "The enigma of Assad: How a painfully shy eye doctor turned into a murderous tyrant". 21 April 2017. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  50. ↑ Leverett 2005, p. 59.
  51. ↑ "Ladno.ru" Асад Башар : биография [Bashar Assad: A Biography]. Ladno (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  52. ↑ Beeston, Richard; Blanford, Nick (22 October 2005). "We are going to send him on a trip. Bye, bye Hariri. Rot in hell". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  53. ↑ Leverett 2005, p. 60.
  54. ↑ "How Syria's 'Geeky' President Went From Doctor to Dictator". NBC News. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  55. ↑ Minahan 2002, p. 83.
  56. ↑ Tucker & Roberts 2008, p. 167.
  57. ↑ "Iran Report: June 19, 2000". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 11 November 2008. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  58. ↑ Wedeen, Lisa (2015). Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric and Symbols in Contemporary Syria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 28, 39, 60–61. ISBN 978-0-226-33337-3. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  59. ↑ Zisser 2007, p. 35.
  60. ↑ "The rise of Syria's controversial president Bashar al-Assad". ABC News. 7 April 2017. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  61. ↑ Klatell, James (27 May 2007). "Syrians Vote in Presidential Referendum" Archived 6 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine. CBS News.
  62. ↑ "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Facing down rebellion". BBC News. 21 October 2015. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  63. ↑ "Assad regime overthrown after 53 years of repression and brutality; pivotal opportunity to establish rule of law and individual rights". Human Rights Foundation. 9 December 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  64. ↑ Sources describing the Assad family's rule of Syria as a personalist dictatorship:
    • Svolik, Milan. "The Politics of Authoritarian Rule". Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original on 15 September 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
    • Weeks, Jessica (2014). Dictators at War and Peace. Cornell University Press. p. 18.
    • Wedeen, Lisa (2018). Authoritarian Apprehensions. Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning. University of Chicago Press. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
    • Hinnebusch, Raymond (2012). "Syria: from 'authoritarian upgrading' to revolution?". International Affairs. 88 (1): 95–113. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2346.2012.01059.x.
    • Michalik, Susanne (2015). "Measuring Authoritarian Regimes with Multiparty Elections". In Michalik, Susanne (ed.). Multiparty Elections in Authoritarian Regimes: Explaining their Introduction and Effects. Studien zur Neuen Politischen Ökonomie. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 33–45. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-09511-6_3. ISBN 978-3658095116.
    • Geddes, Barbara; Wright, Joseph; Frantz, Erica (2018). How Dictatorships Work. Cambridge University Press. p. 233. doi:10.1017/9781316336182. ISBN 978-1-316-33618-2. S2CID 226899229.
  65. ↑ Sources characterising Assad as a dictator:
  66. ↑ Multiple sources:
  67. ↑ "Syria's decade of repression | Human Rights Watch". 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 12 July 2025. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  68. ↑ "The foreign forces in Syria's conflict: a brief explainer". Action on Armed Violence. 6 December 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  69. ↑ Phillips, Christopher (2015). The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East. London: Yale University Press. p. 131. ISBN 9780300217179.
  70. ↑ Abdulrahim, Raja (7 December 2024). "The leader of Syria's rebels told The Times that their aim is to oust al-Assad". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  71. ↑ Gebeily, Maya; Azhari, Timour; Gebeily, Maya (8 December 2024). "Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended, officer says". Reuters. Archived from the original on 16 January 2025. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  72. 1 2 "Bashar al-Assad, Atef Najib sentenced to death in landmark Syria trial". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  73. 1 2 "Syria sentences absent Bashar al-Assad to death over killings and torture". Reuters. 11 August 2026.
  74. ↑ "Middle East Insight". United States. 1985. p. 15 – via International Insight, Incorporated.
  75. ↑ Ma'oz, Moshe (1988). Asad: The Sphinx of Damascus – A Political Biography. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 43. ISBN 1-555-84062-0.
  76. ↑ Carlos BC, Juan (9 December 2021). "The Assad Family Has Been Shaping Syria for 50 Years". Fair Observer. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021.
  77. ↑ L. Stanton, Andrea (2012). "Al-Assad, Hafez". Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia. California: Sage. pp. 233–235. ISBN 978-1-4129-8176-7.
  78. ↑ A. Reilly, James (2018). "7: Thirty Years of Hafez Al-Assad". Fragile Nation, Shattered Land: The Modern History of Syria. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 160–162, 169. ISBN 978-1-78453-961-0.
  79. ↑ Bonsen, Sabrina (2019). "2: Theoretical Framework, State of Research and Method". Martyr Cults and Political Identities in Lebanon. Muhlacker, Germany: Springer. p. 9. ISBN 978-3-658-28097-0.
  80. ↑ Suzanne Kassab, Elizabeth (2019). "3: Tanwir Debates in Syria in the 1990s". Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution: The Egyptian and Syrian Debates. Columbia University Press. pp. 172–173. ISBN 9780231549677.
  81. ↑ Pipes, Daniel (1995). "1: Assad's Post-Soviet Predicament". Syria Beyond the Peace Process. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. pp. 6, 7. ISBN 0-944029-64-7.
  82. 1 2 Shamaileh, Ammar (2017). "2: Trust, Terror and the Arab Sprind: Egypt, Libya and Syria". Trust and Terror: Social Capital and the Use of Terrorism as a Tool of Resistance. New York: Routledge. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-138-20173-6.
  83. 1 2 Turku, Helga (2018). "3: Long-Term Security Repercussions of Attacking Cultural Property". The Destruction of Cultural Property as a Weapon of War. Switzerland: palgrave macmillan. p. 74. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57282-6_1. ISBN 978-3-319-57281-9.
  84. 1 2 Aslan Ozgul, Billur (2019). Leading Protests in the Digital Age: Youth Activism in Egypt and Syria (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 9–10, 41–44, 227. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-25450-6. ISBN 978-3-030-25449-0. S2CID 204449526.
  85. ↑ Stallard, Katie (2022). Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-19-757535-2.
  86. ↑ Aslan Ozgul, Billur (2019). "2: Egypt and Syria: Similarities and Differences between Two Countries". Leading Protests in the Digital Age: Youth Activism in Egypt and Syria (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 43–44. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-25450-6. ISBN 978-3-030-25449-0. S2CID 204449526.
  87. ↑ Carlos BC, Juan (9 December 2021). "The Assad Family Has Been Shaping Syria for 50 Years". Fair Observer. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021.
  88. ↑ Eyal Zisser (2004). "Bashar al-Asad and his Regime – Between Continuity and Change". Orient. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  89. ↑ Kmak, Magdalena; Björklund, Heta (2022). Refugees and Knowledge Production: Europe's Past and Present. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 73. doi:10.4324/9781003092421. ISBN 978-0-367-55206-0. S2CID 246668129.
  90. ↑ Turku, Helga (2018). "3: Long-Term Security Repercussions of Attacking Cultural Property". The Destruction of Cultural Property as a Weapon of War. palgrave macmillan. p. 74. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57282-6. ISBN 978-3-319-57282-6.
  91. ↑ "Council Implementing Decision". European Union. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  92. ↑ Mohamad Daoud (October 2006). "Dossier: Bushra Assad". Mideast Monitor. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  93. ↑ "Cookies op AD.nl – AD.nl". www.ad.nl. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  94. ↑ William E. Schmidt (22 January 1994). "Asad's son killed in an auto crash". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 February 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  95. ↑ William Christou and Pjotr Sauer: "Assad family live in Russian luxury as Bashar ‘brushes up on ophthalmology’" The Guardian, 15 December 2025, retrieved 25 December 2025
  96. ↑ Papacostas, Savvas (28 August 2015). Madness and Leadership: From Antiquity to the New Common Era. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 156. ISBN 9781784719586. Majd al-Assad, an electrical engineer, is rumoured to suffer from a mental illness, adding credence to our assertion that leadership and madness are genetically linked.
  97. ↑ "Majd Hafiz al-Assad, the younger brother of President Bashar al-Assad, died on Saturday December 12, 2009 at the age of 43". Joshua Landis Blog. 12 December 2009. Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  98. 1 2 3 4 5 Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). Comparative Strategy. 25 (5): 379. doi:10.1080/01495930601105412. S2CID 154739379. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  99. ↑ "SANA: Bashar al-Assads Youngest Brother Dead". iloubnan.info. 12 December 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  100. ↑ Martin Stäheli: Die syrische Außenpolitik unter Hafiz Assad, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07867-3; p. 42
  101. ↑ "Syria's military: what does Assad have?". Reuters. 6 April 2011. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  102. 1 2 3 4 5 "Council Decision 2011/273/CFSP of 9 May 2011 concerning restrictive measures against Syria". Official Journal of the European Union. L121/11. 10 May 2011. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  103. ↑ "Syria: Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher 'loses leg'". The Telegraph. London. 16 August 2012. Archived from the original on 16 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  104. ↑ "Assad's feared brother lost leg in bomb attack: sources". Reuters. 16 August 2012. Archived from the original on 16 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  105. ↑ Brian Rokus; Brian Todd (10 September 2013). "Syrian Maher al-Assad is ruthless aide to brother Bashar, analysts say". cnn.com. CNN. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  106. 1 2 Caroline Rose; Alexander Soderholm (April 2022). "The Captagon Threat" (Intelligence briefing). New Lines Institute. p. 22.
  107. ↑ "Syrian court issues death sentences against Bashar al-Assad, former officials". SANA. 11 August 2026.
  108. 1 2 3 Landis, Joshua. "An Asad Arrested for Smuggling Weapons". Syria Comment. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  109. 1 2 3 4 "Council Implementing Decision 2011/302/CFSP of 23 May 2011 Implementing Decision 2011/273/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Syria". Official Journal of the European Union. L136/91. 24 May 2011. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  110. ↑ "The Original Shabiha". Joshua Landis. 17 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  111. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). Comparative Strategy. 25 (5): 381. doi:10.1080/01495930601105412. S2CID 154739379. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  112. 1 2 Robert Fisk (16 September 2010). "Freedom, democracy and human rights in Syria – Ribal al-Assad gives our writer a rare insight into the dynasty that has shaped modern Syria". The Independent. Archived from the original on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  113. 1 2 Duelfer, Charles (30 September 2004). Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD (PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. pp. 103–104. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  114. ↑ Shmuel Bar: Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview In: Comparative Strategy, 25, 2006, Special Issue, p. 382
  115. ↑ "Assad's cousin: The regime has killed more than 500,000 Syrians". Middle East Monitor. 7 August 2019. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  116. 1 2 3 Al Hendi, Ahed (3 May 2011). "The Structure of Syria's Repression". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  117. ↑ "Biography for Dhu al-Himma Shalish". Siloworker. Retrieved 16 May 2011.[permanent dead link]
  118. ↑ "Alphabetical Listing of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons ("SDN List")". US Department of the Treasury. 31 March 2011. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  119. 1 2 3 "Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 611/2011 of 23 June 2011 implementing Regulation(EU) No 442/2011 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Syria". Official Journal of the European Union. L164/54. 24 June 2011. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  120. ↑ Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview" (PDF). Comparative Strategy. 25 (5): 395. doi:10.1080/01495930601105412. S2CID 154739379. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  121. ↑ "Biography for Riyad Shalish". Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  122. 1 2 3 4 5 Leverrier, Ignace (25 February 2012). "In Bashar al-Assad's Syria, the disinformation is also a family affair". Le Monde. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  123. ↑ "Assad cousin killed in Syria's Latakia". Al Jazeera. 24 March 2014.
  124. ↑ "Alawites rally after 'Assad's cousin killed officer'". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  125. ↑ "An "unending nightmare," Bashar al Assad's nephew is out of prison". trtworld.com. 1 December 2020. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  126. ↑ عبده, المعتز (9 December 2024). "حقيقة مقتل سليمان هلال الأسد في اللاذقية". أحداث العرب (in Arabic). Retrieved 9 December 2024.
  127. ↑ AFP Al Arabiya News (14 March 2015). "Assad relative assassinated in Syria". Middle East: alarabiya.net. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  128. ↑ Vincent Beshara; Cody Roche (11 December 2016). "Assad Regime Militias and Shi'ite Jihadis in the Syrian Civil War". Bellingcat. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  129. 1 2 "Syria Comment » Archives » "The Original Shabiha," by Mohammad D". Joshualandis.com. 17 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  130. ↑ Briscoe, Ivan; Floor Janssen Rosan Smits (November 2012). "Stability and economic recovery after Assad: key steps for Syria's post-conflict transition" (PDF). Clingendael: 1–51. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  131. ↑ Tim Lister, and Jamie Crawford (7 March 2012). "Meet Syria's wealthiest and most elusive man". CNN. Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  132. ↑ "Syria's Bashar Al-Assad's Uncle Dies of COVID-19". Sada Elbalad. 12 September 2020.
  133. ↑ "US embassy cables: US sought financial pressure on top Syrian officials". The Guardian. London. Wikileaks. 20 December 2010. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  134. 1 2 Peel, Michael (27 April 2011). "Assad's Family Picked up by the West's Radar". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  135. ↑ Dow, Nicole (26 March 2012). "Getting to know Syria's first family". cnn.com. CNN. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  136. ↑ Vohra, Anchal (15 June 2020). "The War Has Arrived Inside the Assad Family". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022.
  137. ↑ "Bomb kills Syria defense minister, Assad's brother-in-law and key aides". Al Arabiya. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  138. ↑ "Office of Foreign Assets Control: To List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons" (PDF). Treasury Department. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  139. ↑ Shadid, Anthony (10 May 2011). "Syrian Elite to Fight Protests to 'the End'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  140. ↑ "U.S. imposes sanctions on Syrians, entities linked to government". Reuters. 16 May 2017. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  141. ↑ "Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, HM Treasury. Financial Sanctions Notice, Syria" (PDF). 19 May 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  142. ↑ "U.S. imposes sanctions on Syrians, entities linked to government". Reuters. 16 May 2017. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  143. ↑ Trombetta, Lorenzo (27 April 2011). "Le sanzioni americane colpiscono i boss dell'apparato repressivo (American sanctions target the leaders of repression)". Europa. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
  144. ↑ "Bashar al-Assad, Atef Najib sentenced to death in landmark Syria trial". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  145. ↑ "Syria trial seen as first step on long road for Assad's victims". BBC News. 29 April 2026. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
  146. ↑ "Biography for Atif Najib". Silobreaker. Able2Act. Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  147. ↑ "Cable Viewer". Wikileaks. 7 February 1994. Archived from the original on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  148. ↑ "Talal Shafiq Makhlouf". Pro Justice. Archived from the original on 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  149. ↑ Hugh Macleod; Annasofie Flamand (15 June 2012). "Inside Syria's shabiha death squads". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  150. ↑ Seale, Patrick (1988). Asad of Syria: the struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press. p. 429. ISBN 0-520-06667-7.
  151. 1 2 Hanna Batatu (1999). Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-691-00254-5. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013.
  152. ↑ "Syria's Praetorian Guards: A Primer". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. Vol. 2 No. 7 (5 August 2000). Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  153. ↑ "من هو نمير الأسد الذي اعتقلته "الداخلية السورية"" (in Arabic). enabbaladi.net. 16 October 2025.
  154. ↑ "من الإعدام إلى الحرية وعودة إلى الجريمة: قصة نمير الأسد بعد 20 عاماً في السجن" (in Arabic). yallasyrianews.com. 17 October 2025.
  155. 1 2 Cooper (2015), p. 20.
  156. ↑ "Echte Drogen, falsche Dschihadisten". spiegel.de (in German). 3 July 2020. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  157. ↑ "Two relatives of Assad 'arrested at Beirut airport with fake passports'". Yahoo News. 29 December 2024. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  158. ↑ "Syrian authorities arrest Bashar Assad's cousin on drug trafficking charges". AP News. 21 June 2025. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  159. ↑ "Syrian security forces detain cousin of toppled leader Assad". Reuters. 21 June 2025. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  160. ↑ Alsayed | AP, Ghaith (21 June 2025). "Syrian authorities arrest Bashar Assad's cousin on drug trafficking charges". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  161. ↑ "Syrian court sentences Wassim al-Assad to death". Al Jazeera English. 18 August 2026. Retrieved 18 August 2026.
  162. ↑ "The Assad Family: Who Rules Syria?". Zaman al-Wasl. 30 July 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  163. ↑ Fletcher, Martin (1 June 2012). "Bashar al-Assad's father-in-law Fawaz Akhras can't hide on Houla". The Australian. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  164. ↑ "US Sanctions Syrian Leader Assad's Father-in-law". Barron's. 9 December 2024.
  165. ↑ "Asma al-Assad's Family Responds to Reports She Is Divorcing Deposed Dictator Hubby". Yahoo News. 23 December 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2026.
Bibliography
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assad_family&oldid=1376783774"