Syria's Assad: The president who led a bloody crackdown
New Indian ExpressBEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad oversaw a merciless crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt that morphed into one of the bloodiest wars of the century. On Sunday, as rebels entered the capital, a Syrian war monitor said he had left the country, in what could spell the end not just of his 24-year rule but the downfall of his clan's five-decade reign. After facing down nationwide protests demanding his ouster and an armed rebellion that he all but crushed, Assad had -- until a lightning rebel offensive -- taken back control of much of Syria in the civil war that began in 2011. While leading a merciless war of survival for his rule, he presented himself to his people and the outside world as Syria's only viable leader in the face of the Islamist threat.