US EditionRifaat Al-Assad, Syria’s ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies at 88, Family Says
- Sources say Rifaat al-Assad died on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates at age 88; he was a former Syrian vice president and younger brother of Hafez al-Assad.
- After the 1970 coup, Rifaat al-Assad rose to prominence alongside Hafez al-Assad but a 1984 move to seize Damascus ended with his exile and decades in Europe.
- He commanded elite regime forces that crushed the 1982 Islamist uprising in Hama, a three-week operation with casualty estimates ranging from more than 10,000 to SNHR alleged 30,000–40,000 and Swiss prosecutors citing 3,000–60,000 mostly civilians.
- Throughout legal probes, French court convicted Rifaat al-Assad in 2020, ordering the seizure of assets worth more than €100 million, and the Swiss Attorney General’s Office announced a March 2024 trial, while he repeatedly denied involvement.
- He returned to Syria in 2021 reportedly to avoid imprisonment in France, then fled again in 2024 after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, escaping into Lebanon after being denied entry at a Russian airbase, marking the end of a polarizing era.
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36 Articles
A key element of the first decade of power of his brother Hafez Al-Assad, he had long had the ambition to take over the reins of his country. He died on 20 January, at the age of 88.
“The Butcher of Hama” Dies at 88: Who Was Rifaat al-Assad?
Rifaat al-Assad, the younger brother of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and a long-standing symbol of brutality and corruption in modern Syrian history, died on Wednesday at the age of 88. Widely accused of overseeing mass killings and severe human rights abuses, he also amassed vast wealth believed to have been siphoned from public funds. Born in 1937 in Qardaha, Latakia province, Rifaat came from a poor farming family. He studied politi…
He became known as the "Battler of Hama" worldwide, now Syria's former vice-president Rifaat al-Assad died, as several media reported in agreement. Bashar al-Assad's uncle was a powerful figure in Syria's leadership circle. Rifaat al-Assad was considered to be the chief responsible for the suppression of the Hama uprising in 1982 and was also referred to as the "Battler of Hama". At that time Syrian security forces were sent to the city to crush…
Brother of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, known as 'Butcher of Hama,' dies at 88
Rifaat al-Assad became infamous for violently suppressing an Islamist uprising in 1982, an operation in which the Syrian Network for Human Rights later estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 civilians were killed – an episode often cited as a blueprint for how former president Bashar Assad would later respond to challenges to his rule
He was called Hama's butcher.
The uncle of the fallen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad, nicknamed the " Hama's mouth" for his cruelty, died in exile at the age of 88, said two sources close to the family at the AFP on Wednesday. ...
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