Gunmen stormed the tomb of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, located in the town of Qardaha, al-Assad’s family stronghold, in western Syria. According to information conveyed on Wednesday December 11 by Agence France-Presse and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the mausoleum, which also housed the graves of Basil al-Assad, brother of Bashar al-Assad, and their grandmother, was burned by rebel fighters. This site, located in the Alawite region of Latakia, was a strong symbol of the regime that ruled the country for decades.
Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1970 until his death in 2000, marking his tenure with brutal repression, including the Hama massacre in 1982. Witnesses reported that the rebels allegedly intention to exhume and destroy the remains of the former president, although this information could not be independently confirmed.
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Erasing traces of the al-Assad regime
Since the flight of Bashar al-Assad to Moscow, following a major offensive by rebel forces, demonstrations and acts of vandalism targeting symbols of power have increased in Syrian cities. Statues and portraits of al-Assad leaders are systematically destroyed or defaced, reflecting the end of half a century of this clan’s domination over Syria.
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The burning of the Qardaha mausoleum illustrates the symbolic and material collapse of a once omnipresent regime. Described as highly symbolic, this attack marks a turning point in the Syrian civil war, testifying to the rebels’ desire to turn the page on a long dictatorship.
