Rebel offensive ends Bashar Assad’s 14-year struggle to maintain power

Syrian President Bashar Assad pictured reviewing the presidential guard in Athens, Greece, in 2003. Picture: Petros Giannakouris/AP

The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government brought to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold on to power as his country fragmented amid a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.

Mr Assad’s downfall came as a stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip.