QARDAHA, Syria — On the walls of the palatial mausoleum built to house the remains of former Syrian President Hafez Assad, vandals have sprayed variations of the phrase, “Damn your soul, Hafez.” Nearly two weeks after the ouster of his son, Bashar Assad, people streamed in to take photos next to the burned-out hollow where the elder Assad’s grave used …
The Sunni-led Islamist rebels who toppled Syria's Bashar al-Assad met elders in the former president's Alawite hometown on Monday and received their support, in what residents said was an encouraging sign of tolerance from the country's new rulers. The rebel delegation visited Assad's hometown of Qardaha in the mountains of Latakia province in northwest Syria, meeting with dozens of religious …
After capturing Aleppo and Hama in quick succession, Islamists rebels have now reached the strategically important city of Homs. Historically dominated by the Sunnis, Homs became home to a massive Alawite population – President Bashar al-Assad’s sect – after the 1963 coup. After non-violent protests inspired by the Arab Spring began nationwide in March 2011, Homs city saw the first …
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