1. Major General Maher Hafez al-Assad is a Syrian former military officer who served as commander of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, which, together with Syria's Military Intelligence, formed the core of the Ba'athist regime's security forces until its collapse in 2024.
Maher al-Assad is the younger brother of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and was a member of the Central Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath Party.
At the onset of the Syrian Revolution, Maher was thought by some to be the second-most powerful man in Syria after his brother Bashar, the president.
Maher al-Assad is considered a regime hardliner, who reportedly favored the crackdown against the Damascus Spring movement and has been implicated in UN reports of orchestrating the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Maher al-Assad oversaw the crackdown against Syrian protestors at Daraa, which led to the US and the European Union announcing sanctions against him.
Maher al-Assad is described by analysts as preferring Iran to play the largest role as the Syrian Government's main ally during the Syrian Civil War and subsequent post-war reconstruction.
However, it was reported in 2021 that Maher al-Assad was part of the Ba'athist faction that demanded the end of Iranian presence in Syria, so as to promote regional rapprochement with neighboring Arab countries.
Maher al-Assad supervised operations of the Shabiha squads, pro-Assad Alawite paramilitaries known for sectarian attacks against Sunni civilians.
Maher al-Assad was born on 8 December 1967, the youngest child of Anisa Makhlouf and Hafez al-Assad.
Maher al-Assad was just two years old when his father became President of Syria.
Maher al-Assad went to the Academy of Freedom School for his secondary education and then studied business administration at Damascus University.
When Bassel died in a car crash in 1994, Maher al-Assad was mentioned as a possible successor to Hafez, but in the end, Bashar succeeded his father even though he lacked both military experience and political ambition.
Maher al-Assad operated a number of different business projects in Lebanon with his cousin Rami Makhlouf.
Maher al-Assad subsequently became commander of the Republican Guard, a 10,000 strong unit whose loyalty is said to be guaranteed by the significant share of revenue that it receives from the oil fields in the Deir ez-Zor region, and the commander of the army's elite 4th Armoured Division which was once his uncle Rifaat Assad's Defense companies.
In June 2000, Maher al-Assad was elected to the Central Committee of the Ba'ath Party's Syrian Regional Branch and subsequently was influential in persuading his brother Bashar during the first few months of his rule to put an end to the political openness of the short lived Damascus Spring.
Three years later Maher al-Assad Assad met in Jordan with Israeli businessman Eitan Bentzur, a former director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and offered to reopen peace negotiations with Israel without preconditions.
Maher al-Assad often appeared in public with Bashar and is said to be one of his closest advisers.
Maher al-Assad competed with Assef Shawkat, who was married to his sister Bushra al-Assad and was head of military intelligence, for influence in the Assad government.
Maher al-Assad was opposed to Shawkat's marriage to his sister Bushra, and had Shawkat imprisoned on several occasions to keep them apart.
In 2008, Maher al-Assad was in charge of putting down a prison revolt in Sednaya Prison, where 400 soldiers had been kidnapped by the prisoners.
Human rights groups had unverified video footage that purportedly shows Maher al-Assad taking photographs with his mobile phone of the dismembered bodies of prisoners after the riot.
In 2016 and 2017, there were conflicting reporting regarding Maher al-Assad's rank, whether he was a brigadier general or major general.
Maher al-Assad had previously been the commander of the 42nd battalion within the division.
Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in mid-March 2011, Maher al-Assad's troops have played a key role in violently suppressing protests in the southern city of Daraa, the coastal city of Banias, the central province of Homs and the northern province of Idlib.
The Los Angeles Times reported that video footage existed, which activists and observers claimed showing Maher al-Assad personally shooting at unarmed protesters, who were demanding the fall of the Assad government in the Barzeh suburb of Damascus.
The United States on 27 April 2011 placed sanctions on Maher al-Assad for being a facilitator of human rights violations in Syria.
Two weeks later, on 10 May 2011, the EU sanctioned Maher al-Assad for being the principal overseer of violence against demonstrators during the Syrian uprising.
On 2 December 2011, Maher al-Assad was placed on a travel ban.
Maher al-Assad's role became more significant following the assassination of the Syrian defense minister, high-ranking security officials and Assef Shawkat on 18 July 2012.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Maher al-Assad is presumed to be in hiding.
Reuters reported that Maher al-Assad had flown a helicopter to Iraq before proceeding to Russia, having been failed to be informed by his brother Bashar of his own departure to Russia.
Maher al-Assad is widely perceived as a hardline loyalist who finishes the "dirty work" for the regime.
Maher al-Assad plays the central role in coordinating Syrian regime's production of illegal drugs and its trafficking to foreign countries.
On 20 August 2012, rumours surfaced that Maher al-Assad, who had not been seen since 18 July 2012 Damascus bombing, succumbed to his injuries after RT reported that a senior Syrian military official died in a hospital in Moscow.
However, on 10 October 2012, Abdullah Omar, a defected Syrian journalist, told CNN that Maher al-Assad was treated in Russia but returned to the presidential palace, where al-Omar said that Maher al-Assad had lost his left leg in the bombing and the use of his left arm.
Maher al-Assad is married to Manal al-Jadaan, a Sunni woman with whom he has two daughters and one son.