Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad’s father
Syrian rebel fighters have destroyed the tomb of former president Hafez al-Assad, father of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, in the family’s hometown of Qardaha.
Videos verified by the BBC show armed men chanting while moving through the burning mausoleum in Qardaha, located in the northwestern Latakia region on Syria’s coast.
The rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a swift offensive across Syria, ending the Assad dynasty’s 54-year rule. Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia, where he and his family have been granted asylum.
Statues and posters of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad have also been torn down during the rebel advance.
In 2011, Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed a peaceful pro-democracy movement, igniting a brutal civil war that has claimed over 500,000 lives and displaced 12 million people.
Hafez al-Assad governed Syria with an iron grip from 1971 until his death in 2000, when power transitioned to his son. He hailed from an Alawite family, a Shia Islam offshoot and a religious minority in Syria, concentrated primarily in Latakia province near the Mediterranean coast.
Alawites, who comprise roughly 10% of Syria’s population, were key supporters of the Assad regime during its decades in power. Many now fear retribution from the victorious rebels.
On Monday, a delegation of rebels from HTS and the Sunni Muslim group, the Free Syrian Army, met with elders in Qardaha. According to Reuters, the meeting resulted in an agreement emphasizing Syria’s religious and cultural diversity.
HTS and allied rebel factions seized control of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday after years of civil war.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has now started using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is a former jihadist who cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016. He has recently pledged tolerance for different religious groups and communities.
The UN envoy for Syria has said the rebels must transform their “good messages” into practice on the ground.
The US secretary of state meanwhile said Washington would recognise and fully support a future Syrian government so long as it emerged from a credible, inclusive process that respected minorities.
HTS has appointed a transitional government led by Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, until March 2025.
Bashir chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by members of his new government and those of Assad’s former cabinet to discuss the transfer of portfolios and institutions.
He has said it is time for people to “enjoy stability and calm” after the end of the Assad regime.
In Damascus, BBC correspondents have been seeing signs of life beginning to return to normal, with people heading back to work and shops reopening.
Joud Insani, who works in a chocolate shop in the Syrian capital, tells the BBC she was able to open “without fear”, adding that she had noticed a welcome change in the types of customers who visit.
“We reopened without fear because the people we serve are now not intimidating at all,” she said.
“Before, everyone who came to buy from us was either there to represent a general or a minister loyal to the Assad regime. Now thank God, that is no longer the case.”
In one of the famous food and vegetable markets of Damascus, a salesman tells the BBC: “Now we have oxygen in the air.” While another man noted there was “ongoing celebration from now on”.
In the neighbourhood of Joubar, emotional reunions have been taking place in the old opposition stronghold, more than 90% of which has been destroyed.
Monawwar al Qahef and her husband Muhammad returned for the first time in 12 years. The couple cried when they saw their two-storey house, which has been reduced to a pile of concrete rocks around a single arched wall.
“This is the first time we dared to come back,” Muhammad said. “I feel as if it’s me that has been broken into pieces.”
