DAMASCUS: Rifaat Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and dubbed the “Butcher of Hama” for suppressing an uprising in the 1980s, has died aged 88, two sources close to the family said Wednesday.
Once a pillar of the Assad family’s dynastic rule, Rifaat “died after suffering from influenza for around a week,” one source who worked in Syria’s presidential palace for over three decades told AFP.
A second source, an ex-officer of Syria’s army in the Assad era, confirmed the death, saying Rifaat had moved to the United Arab Emirates after his nephew’s government was toppled by rebels in December 2024, without specifying if he died there.
Rifaat’s role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Hama,” referring to the central Syrian city.
His brother Hafez Assad, who ruled Syria at the time, launched the campaign, which government forces carried out under the command of Rifaat, who was the head of the elite “Defense Brigades.”
