Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician, physician and military officer who served as President of Syria and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces from July 2000 until his flight from the country in December 2024. Born September 11, 1965, he trained as an ophthalmologist in London and was recalled to Syria in 1994 after his elder brother's fatal car accident made him heir apparent to his father, Hafez al-Assad. He took office within weeks of his father's death in 2000 and held the presidency for nearly a quarter century. His government responded to the 2011 Arab Spring protests with a deadly military crackdown that developed into a prolonged civil war, which by the time of his fall had killed more than 600,000 people, with pro-Assad forces responsible for most civilian casualties. He kept power for over a decade of civil war with military support from Russia and Iran, then fled to Moscow in December 2024 as rebel forces swept through Syria and his government collapsed.