Mohammed Nasif Kheirbek
Mohammed Nasif Kheirbek (, 10 April 1937 – 28 June 2015) known as ''Mohammed Nasif'' or ''Abu Wael'', was the former Deputy Vice-President for Security Affairs in Syria. He was a close adviser of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and served as Syria's point-man for its relationship with Iran and Lebanon's Shia militias. Nasif was among several officials sanctioned by the European Union for the use of violence against civilians during the Syrian civil war. Background Mohammed Nasif Kheirbek was born 10 April 1937 in Homs but his family was from the Alawite village of al-Laqbah near Masyaf.Rosen, NirAssad's Alawites: An entrenched community ''Al Jazeera English''. 2011-10-12. He was a member of the Alawite Kalbiyya tribal confederation, to which Bashar al-Assad belongs. The Kheirbek and Assad family are also connected by marriage. His brother Mu'ein is married to one of Rifaat al-Assad's daughters, Tumadhir. Mohammed was the head of the powerful Kheirbek clan who are represented ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government was overthrown in 2024 after Syrian civil war, 13 years of civil war. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Central Command of the Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction), Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1970 to 2000. In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training in London as an ophthalmologist. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash, Assad was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. Assad entered the military academy and in 1998 took charge of the Syrian occupation of Leba ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. With a Ethnicities in Iran, multi-ethnic population of over 92 million in an area of , Iran ranks 17th globally in both List of countries and dependencies by area, geographic size and List of countries and dependencies by population, population. It is the List of Asian countries by area, sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and one of the world's List of mountains in Iran, most mountainous countries. Officially an Islamic republic, Iran is divided into Regions of Iran, five regions with Provinces of Iran, 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's Capital city, capital, List of cities in Iran by province, largest city and financial ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a Socialist state, socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The Economy of East Germany, economy of the country was Central planning, centrally planned and government-owned corporation, state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc. Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the Berlin Declaration (1945), Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II. The Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Military Attache
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily Weapon, armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a distinct military uniform. They may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of a military is usually defined as defence of their state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms "armed forces" and "military" are often synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include other paramilitary forces such as armed police. Beyond warfare, the military may be employed in additional sanctioned and non-sanctioned functions within the state, including internal security threats, crowd control, promotion of political agendas, emergency services and reconstructi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hafez Al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad (6 October 193010 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the president of Syria from 1971 until Death and state funeral of Hafez al-Assad, his death in 2000. He was previously the Prime Minister of Syria, prime minister from 1970 to 1971 as well as the regional secretary of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, regional command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction), National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Assad was a key participant in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, which brought the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power in the country, a power that lasted until the Fall of the Assad regime, fall of the regime in 2024, then led by his son Bashar al-Assad, Bashar. After the 1963 coup, the new leadership appointed Assad as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rifaat Al-Assad
Rifaat Ali al-Assad (; born 22 August 1937) is a Syrian former military officer and politician. He is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the former President Bashar al-Assad. He was the commanding officer of the ground operations of the 1982 Hama massacre ordered by his brother. After launching a 1984 Syrian coup attempt, failed coup attempt against Hafez al-Assad in 1984, Rifaat lived in exile in Europe for 36 years and returned to Syria in October 2021 after being found guilty in France of acquiring millions of euros diverted from the Syrian state. In September 2022, France's highest court, the Court of Cassation (France), Cour de Cassation, confirmed the ruling. In August 2023, Switzerland issued an international warrant for Rifaat's arrest after its Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland, Federal Criminal Court demanded his extradition to prosecute him for his role in supervising ground operations of the 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Assad Family
The Assad family ruled Syria from 1971, when Hafez al-Assad became president under the Ba'ath Party following the 1970 coup, until Bashar al-Assad was ousted on 8 December 2024. Bashar succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, after Hafez's death in 2000. The Assads are from Qardaha, Latakia Governorate. They attributed themselves to the Kalbiyya tribe. In 1927, Ali Sulayman arrived as an immigrant originally Kaka'i (Yarsanism) from Iran and changed his last name from ''al-Wahsh'', Arabic for 'the savage', to ''al-Assad'', 'the lion', possibly in connection with his social standing as a local mediator and his political activities. All members of the extended Assad family stem from Ali Sulayman and his second wife, Naissa, who came from a village in the Syrian Coastal Mountains.Martin Stäheli: ''Die syrische Außenpolitik unter Hafez Assad'', Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ; p. 40 During his early reign in the 1970s, Hafez al-Assad created patronage networks of Ba'at ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kalbiyya
The Kalbiyya (), or Kalbi or Kelbi tribe is one of four tribes, or tribal confederations, of the Alawite community in Syria. Appearing in historical sources from the 16th century, the Kalbiyya came to prominence when Hafez al-Assad, the son of a Kalbiyya tribal leader, seized power in Syria in a coup in 1970. Assad ruled Syria as a dictator for 30 years and ensured that power was concentrated in the hands of members of the Kalbiyya tribe, a policy which his son, Bashar al-Assad, continued for another 24 years until overthrown in 2024. The Kalbiyya population mainly live in the Latakia Governorate in north west Syria. Background The Kalbiyya are a tribe, or tribal confederation, of the Alawite community of northwestern Syria. Also known as Nusayris or Alawis, the Alawites are a prominent mystical religious sect who follow a syncretic form of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. The Alawite homeland is in the Nusayri mountains coastal region, inland of the Mediterranean ports of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is the first global English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Al Jazeera is known for its in-depth and frontline reporting particularly in conflict zones such as the Arab Spring, the Gaza–Israel conflict and others. Al Jazeera's coverage of the Arab Spring won the network numerous awards, including the Peabody Award. It positions itself as an alternative media platform to the dominance of Western media outlets like CNN and BBC, focusing on narrative reporting where subjects present their own stories. History The channel was launched on 15 November 2006. The channel was initially slated to be named Al Jazeera International, but the name was changed nine months before the launch. This decision was influenced by o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Masyaf
Masyaf ( ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The city is well known for its large medieval castle, particularly its role as the headquarters of the Nizari Ismailis and their elite Assassins unit. Etymology Throughout the Islamic era and until the modern day, the Arabic name of the city was pronounced in a number of different ways by the inhabitants of the region as ''Maṣyaf'', ''Maṣyat'' or ''Maṣyad''. The Arabic name is a local pronunciation that evolved from the Assyrian name ''Manṣuate''. The "nṣw" in ''Manṣuate'' correlates with the Arabic "nṣṣ", which means "to set up", according to orientalist scholar Edward Lipinsky. Moreover, Lipinsky suggests that the Assyrian name was likely a configuration of the Assyrian word ''manṣuwatu'' which correlates with the Arabic word ''mina� ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al-Laqbah
Al-Laqbah (, also spelled al-Laqbeh or Laqbee) is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. It is situated along the edge of the Orontes River valley, on the main road between Masyaf and northern Syria. Nearby localities include Deir Mama to the south, Jubb Ramlah and Hanjur to the northeast, Deir Shamil to the north and al-Annazah to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Laqbah had a population of 1,908 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004 Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama G ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alawite
Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the "Imamate in Shia doctrine, first Imam" in the Twelver Shi'ism, Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence. It is the only ''ghulat'' sect still in existence today. The group was founded during the ninth century by Ibn Nusayr, who was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi, and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called ''Nusayris''. Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the Syrians, Syrian population and are a significant minority in the Hatay Province of Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights, where there had been two other Alawite villages ('Ayn Fit, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |