Syria’s sectarian rage
Ahmed al-Sharaa wants to unite the country. But deep divisions threaten a renewed cycle of death and chaos.
ByBashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad is the former president of Syria. Born in 1965, he took office in July 2000 a month after his father, Hafez, the previous president, died, and fled from office in December 2024. In 2011, as part of the Arab Spring, protests began in Syria calling for Assad to be removed from office. They were violently suppressed, and the confrontation escalated to a civil war. Find our latest news and comment on Bashar al-Assad here.
Inside Syria’s “human slaughterhouse”
Bashar al-Assad tortured and mutilated his own people. Will the country he leaves behind ever recover?
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The Kremlin’s new calculus on Syria
Vladimir Putin bet on Bashar al-Assad’s murderous rule. Now Russia is shifting course.
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What happens when a tyrant flees
What's next for Syria, Assad, and the wider region?
The Syrian crucible
Can a new Middle East be fashioned from the ruins of the Assad regime?
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Bashar al-Assad will find no peace in Moscow
Like many tyrants before him, the Syrian dictator will live his life on the run – and die in fear.
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The fall of Assad represents a revolution in the Middle East
The Syrian dictator was one of the region’s key powerbrokers. His regime’s sudden collapse has left a vacuum.
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Aleppo is just the beginning
The advance on the city is a Syrian drama, reflecting both rebel success and regime failure.
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How the Syrian civil war will suck in the world’s great powers
Aleppo could become the vortex of a regional and even global conflict.
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What Assad can teach Putin about surviving international isolation
The Syrian regime has been partially rehabilitated, and it doesn't even have Russia's natural resources to bargain with.
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Bashar al-Assad is the real winner of Trump abandoning the Kurds in Syria
In a shock announcement late Sunday, the president announced that US forces will be withdrawn from the Syria-Turkey border.
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Bashar al-Assad’s horrific victory is really Vladimir Putin’s triumph
He has secured his warm-water port and sent a message: he doesn't abandon his allies.
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Bashar al-Assad interview: Jeremy Bowen meets Syria’s great survivor
War has been raging in Syria for nearly four years and much of the country is in ruins, yet Bashar…
ByBashar Al Assad: an intimate profile of a mass murderer
How Syria polite dictator won.
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Russia begins airstrikes in Syria “at the request of Bashar al-Assad”
Sources in Washington report being given an hour to clear Syrian airspace as Russia votes for military intervention.
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