Assad Fall Ends 13 Year War in Syria   12/09 06:05

   Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country on Sunday, bringing to a 
dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country 
fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional 
and international powers.

   BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country on Sunday, 
bringing to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control 
as his country fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield 
for regional and international powers.

   The exit of the 59-year-old Assad stood in stark contrast to his first 
months as Syria's unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a 
young reformer after three decades of his father's iron grip. At age 34, the 
Western-educated ophthalmologist appeared as a geeky tech-savvy fan of 
computers with a gentle demeanor.

   But when faced with protests of his rule that erupted in March 2011, Assad 
turned to the brutal tactics of his father to crush dissent. As the uprising 
hemorrhaged into an outright civil war, he unleashed his military to blast 
opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia.

   International rights groups and prosecutors alleged widespread use of 
torture and extrajudicial killings in Syria's government-run detention centers. 
The war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the 
country's prewar population of 23 million.

   The conflict appeared to be frozen in recent years, with Assad's government 
regaining control of most of Syria's territory while the northwest remained 
under the control of opposition groups and the northeast under Kurdish control.

   Although Damascus remained under crippling Western sanctions, neighboring 
countries had begun to resign themselves to Assad's continued hold on power. 
The Arab League reinstated Syria's membership last year, and Saudi Arabia in 
May announced the appointment of its first ambassador since severing ties with 
Damascus 12 years ago.

   However, the geopolitical tide turned quickly when opposition groups in 
northwest Syria in late November launched a surprise offensive. Government 
forces quickly collapsed while Assad's allies, preoccupied by other conflicts 
-- Russia's war in Ukraine and the yearlong wars between Israel and the 
Iran-backed militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas -- appeared reluctant to 
forcefully intervene.

   An end to decades of family rule

   Assad came to power in 2000 by a twist of fate. His father had been 
cultivating Bashar's oldest brother, Basil, as his successor, but in 1994, 
Basil was killed in a car crash in Damascus. Bashar was brought home from his 
ophthalmology practice in London, put through military training and elevated to 
the rank of colonel to establish his credentials so he could one day rule.

   When Hafez Assad died in 2000, parliament quickly lowered the presidential 
age requirement from 40 to 34. Bashar's elevation was sealed by a nationwide 
referendum, in which he was the only candidate.

   Hafez, a lifelong military man, ruled the country for nearly 30 years during 
which he set up a Soviet-style centralized economy and kept such a stifling 
hand over dissent that Syrians feared even to joke about politics to their 
friends.

   He pursued a secular ideology that sought to bury sectarian differences 
under Arab nationalism and the image of heroic resistance to Israel. He formed 
an alliance with the Shiite clerical leadership in Iran, sealed Syrian 
domination over Lebanon and set up a network of Palestinian and Lebanese 
militant groups.

   Bashar initially seemed completely unlike his strongman father.

   Tall and lanky with a slight lisp, he had a quiet, gentle demeanor. His only 
official position before becoming president was head of the Syrian Computer 
Society. His wife, Asma al-Akhras, whom he married several months after taking 
office, was attractive, stylish and British-born.

   The young couple, who eventually had three children, seemed to shun 
trappings of power. They lived in an apartment in the upscale Abu Rummaneh 
district of Damascus, as opposed to a palatial mansion like other Arab leaders.

   Initially upon coming to office, Assad freed political prisoners and allowed 
more open discourse. In the "Damascus Spring," salons for intellectuals emerged 
where Syrians could discuss art, culture and politics to a degree impossible 
under his father.

   But after 1,000 intellectuals signed a public petition calling for 
multiparty democracy and greater freedoms in 2001, and others tried to form a 
political party, the salons were snuffed out by the feared secret police, who 
jailed dozens of activists.

   Tested by the Arab Spring, Assad relied on old alliances to stay in power

   Instead of a political opening, Assad turned to economic reforms. He slowly 
lifted economic restrictions, let in foreign banks, threw the doors open to 
imports and empowered the private sector. Damascus and other cities long mired 
in drabness saw a flourishing of shopping malls, new restaurants and consumer 
goods. Tourism swelled.

   Abroad, he stuck to the line his father had set, based on the alliance with 
Iran and a policy of insisting on a full return of the Israel-annexed Golan 
Heights, although in practice Assad never militarily confronted Israel.

   In 2005, he suffered a heavy blow with the loss of Syria's decades-old 
control over neighboring Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime 
Minister Rafik Hariri. With many Lebanese accusing Damascus of being behind the 
slaying, Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from the country and a 
pro-American government came to power.

   At the same time, the Arab world split into two camps -- one of U.S.-allied, 
Sunni-led countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the other of Syria and 
Shiite-led Iran with their ties to Hezbollah and Palestinian militants.

   Throughout, Assad relied largely on the same power base at home as his 
father: his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam comprising around 10% of 
the population. Many of the positions in his government went to younger 
generations of the same families that had worked for his father. Drawn in as 
well were members of the new middle class created by his reforms, including 
prominent Sunni merchant families.

   Assad also turned to his own family. His younger brother Maher headed the 
elite Presidential Guard and would lead the crackdown against the uprising. 
Their sister Bushra was a strong voice in his inner circle, along with her 
husband, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, until he was killed in a 2012 
bombing. Bashar's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, became the country's biggest 
businessman, heading a financial empire before the two had a falling-out that 
led to Makhlouf being pushed aside.

   Assad also increasingly entrusted key roles to his wife, Asma, before she 
announced in May that she was undergoing treatment for leukemia and stepped out 
of the limelight.

   When 2011 protests erupted in Tunisia and Egypt, eventually toppling their 
rulers, Assad dismissed the possibility of the same occurring in Syria, 
insisting his regime was more in tune with its people. After the Arab Spring 
wave reached Syria, his security forces staged a brutal crackdown while Assad 
consistently denied he faced a popular revolt. He instead blamed 
"foreign-backed terrorists" trying to destabilize his regime.

   His rhetoric struck a chord with many in Syria's minority groups -- 
including Christians, Druze and Shiites -- as well as some Sunnis who feared 
the prospect of rule by Sunni extremists even more than they disliked Assad's 
authoritarian rule.

   As the uprising spiraled into a civil war, millions of Syrians fled to 
Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon and on to Europe.

   Ironically, on Feb. 26, 2011, two days after the fall of Egypt's Hosni 
Mubarak to protesters and just days before the wave of Arab Spring protests 
swept into his country, Assad emailed a joke he had seen mocking the Egyptian 
leader's stubborn refusal to step down.