Syrian rebels burn grave of Bashar al-Assad’s father VIDEO

The mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad, father of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was set alight in his hometown of Qardaha.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, confirmed that opposition forces were responsible for torching the site, situated in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite community to which the Assad family belongs, Caliber.Az reports.

The video showed opposition fighters in military attire and local youths watching as flames engulfed the structure.

Parts of the mausoleum were shown ablaze and heavily damaged in the footage, with the tomb of Hafez al-Assad completely destroyed. Perched on a hilltop, the vast and intricately designed structure features numerous arches and decorative stonework.

It also serves as the final resting place for other members of the Assad family, including Bashar al-Assad’s brother Bassel, who was once considered the heir apparent until his death in a car accident in 1994.

The attack on the mausoleum follows a swift opposition offensive over the weekend, during which key cities were captured, culminating in the fall of Damascus. The rapid advance forced Bashar al-Assad to flee, bringing an end to over five decades of Assad family rule in Syria.

To recap, in 2011, Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed a peaceful pro-democracy movement, triggering a brutal civil war that has claimed over half a million lives and forced 12 million people to flee their homes.

His father, Hafez al-Assad, ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1971 until his death in 2000, when power passed to Bashar.

The Assads hail from the Alawite community, a religious minority within Shia Islam, primarily located in Latakia province along Syria's Mediterranean coast, near the Turkish border. Alawites make up around 10% of Syria’s population and have long been loyal supporters of the Assad regime. 

By Aghakazim Guliyev