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Late Syrian President Hafez Assad ruled the country from 1971 until his death in 2000. Now his son fled to Russia.
Syrian rebels destroyed the grave of late President Hafez Assad, father of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in the family's hometown. Footage seen by the BBC shows gunmen chanting slogans outside a burning mausoleum in Kardakh, in the northwestern coastal region of Latakia.
Rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept through Syria in a lightning offensive that toppled the Assad dynasty's 54-year rule. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, where he and his family were granted asylum.
Statues and posters of the late President Hafez and his son Bashar were torn down across the country to cheers from Syrians celebrating the end of their rule.
In 2011, Bashar al-Assad brutally suppressed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a devastating civil war that killed more than half a million people and displaced 12 million.
And his father, Hafez Assad, ruthlessly ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, when power passed to his son.
He was born and raised in an Alawite family, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and a religious minority in Syria whose main population center is located in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, not far from the border with Turkey.
Many Alawites, who make up about 10% of the country's population, were staunch supporters of the Assads during their long rule. Some of them now fear they could be targeted by the victorious rebels.
It will be recalled that Hafez Assad's successor was to be his brother Rifat, but he tried to stage a coup d'état and was expelled from the country. Then Hafez began to prepare for the rule of his eldest son Basil, but in 1994 he died in a car accident. Then Assad the elder chose his second son - Bashar, who at that time lived in London and had never been involved in politics. In 2000, Hafez Asad died of a heart attack.
According to the Reuters news agency, on Monday, a rebel delegation, which included members of the HTS and another Sunni Muslim group, the Free Syrian Army, met with Kardahi elders and received their support.
The rebel delegation signed a document emphasizing the religious and cultural diversity of Syria.
