Bassel al-Assad

Bassel al-Assad
بَاسِلُ ٱلْأَسَدِ
Bassel al-Assad, c. 1992
Native name
بَاسِلُ ٱلْأَسَدِ
Nickname(s)The Golden Knight
Born23 March 1962
Damascus, Syria
Died21 January 1994(1994-01-21) (aged 31)
Damascus, Syria
Allegiance Syria
Service / branch Syrian Arab Army
Years of service1980–1994
RankColonel
Unit 2nd Special Forces Regiment, 14th Airborne Division
Republican Guard
Commands42nd Special Forces Regiment
12th Armoured Battalion, Syrian Arab Republican Guard.
AwardsHero of the Republic
Order of Salahaddin
Relationsal-Assad family

Bassel al-Assad (Arabic: بَاسِلُ ٱلْأَسَدِ, romanizedBāsil al-ʾAsad; 23 March 1962 – 21 January 1994) was a Syrian engineer, colonel, equestrian and politician who was the eldest son of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the older brother of (later) President Bashar al-Assad. It was widely expected that he would succeed his father as President of Syria until he died in a car crash in 1994.[1]

  1. ^ "Bashar al-Assad: behind the mask". Financial Times. 15 June 2012. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 5 June 2022.