Hafez al-Assad

Biography

Hafez al-Assad was born in 1930 in Qardaha into an Alawite family. As a schoolboy in Latakia he organised student cells for the Ba'ath Party. In 1950 he entered the Homs Military Academy and flying school, and he was commissioned in the Syrian Air Force in 1955. With other officers he formed the Ba'athist Military Committee, took part in the 1963 coup that brought the party to power, and became commander of the air force.

After the February 1966 coup he was made minister of defence. In November 1970 he overthrew Salah Jadid, becoming prime minister and, in March 1971, president, a post he held until his death. He concentrated power in the presidency and the Alawite-dominated security services and fostered a personality cult. Abroad he aligned with the Soviet Union, fought Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and sent troops into Lebanon in 1976, beginning a long Syrian occupation.

His government crushed an Islamist uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood, culminating in the 1982 Hama massacre, in which thousands were killed. When his brother Rifaat tried to seize power during his illness in 1984, Rifaat was sent into exile. After his eldest son Bassel died in 1994, Assad prepared his younger son Bashar to succeed him, which Bashar did after Hafez died in Damascus on 10 June 2000.