Bashar al Assad’s downfall marks an end to more than half a century of family rule, as rebel forces turned the tide in a civil war he had embraced. The authoritarian president ruled Syria for 24 years, five years short of his father’s time in power, but the plan was never for him...
The thread that linked both countries was Russia, which backed Venezuelan President Maduro and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, bombing rebel areas in Syria’s civil war and catalyzing the Syrian refugee crisis. The flood of Syrian refugees into Europe heightened political stress there and energized...
First, a bit of history: Bashar Assad took over rule of Syria in 2000 from his father, Hafez Al Assad (1971), under the Ba’ath Party. Altogether they held power with an iron fist for 54 years. Part of the Alawite kingdom, a once-persecuted minority splinter group of the Shi’ite ...
Al-Madioum grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park in a loving and nonreligious family, the defense memo said. He joined IS because he wanted to help Muslims he believed were being slaughtered by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in that country's civil war. IS recruiters...