They ‘didn’t look the type’: how the media was fooled by Bashar and Asma al-Assad | Zoe Williams

Some journalists underestimated the threat of the brutal president, while his first lady was glamorised in a Vogue feature

As Bashar al-Assad is ousted as Syria’s brutal president, his wife Asma and children having fled to Russia shortly before, the scenes are too astonishing to settle. We can’t call it a finished revolution, but we can call Assad’s a finished regime and mark the end of the Syrian civil war: 13 years of heinous bloodshed; 580,000 people killed – more than 230,000 of them civilians, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which attributes about 90% of those non-combatant deaths to Assad’s forces.

He never looked the type, foreign correspondents say. Adrian Blomfield in the Telegraph calls Assad “awkward and gangly, his mannerisms unassuming”. John Simpson found him “meek and anxious to please”. And who could forget how un-bloodthirsty, how incongruous, Asma al-Assad looked? Neat and understated, like a wife in a miniseries.

Topics

Nicola Jennings on the fall of Bashar al-Assad – cartoon

Continue reading...
The Guardian - 10h
How Bashar al-Assad’s regime crumbled

Syria’s strongman was feted in Riyadh three weeks ago. Now he is an asylum seeker in Moscow
Financial Times - 2d
Bashar al-Assad of Syria Falls to Rebels

President Bashar al-Assad had kept opposition forces at bay for a decade with help from Russia and Iran. But rebels struck at a moment of weakness for those countries.
The New York Times - 2d
Bashar al-Assad, an Ophthalmologist Who Became a Dictator, Is the Last of a Despotic Dynasty

Once a self-styled modernizer, Syria’s president bought time with a harsh crackdown, but his government eventually succumbed to its many enemies.
The Wall Street Journal - 3d
From doctor to brutal dictator: the rise and fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad

Toppled president came to power keen to show he was different from his father but proved to be as repressive. Middle East crisis – live updates On the face of it at least, the Bashar al-Assad ...
The Guardian - 3d
Watch: Looting at Bashar al-Assad's residence

BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab describes chaotic scenes in the Syrian capital.
BBC News - 3d
Russia says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country

Russia says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country
ABC News - 3d
Where is Bashar al-Assad?

The statement from Assad's ally is the first on his whereabouts since rebels took control of Damascus.
BBC News - 3d
Where is Bashar al-Assad? Rumours swirl in Syria about its president

Rumours surround the whereabouts of the Syrian president, as rebels make advances near the capital's suburbs.
BBC News - 4d