Hafez Al-Assad coffin had been in a mausoleum in the Assad family’s ancestral village (Image: Aaref WATAD / AFP)
have set fire to the coffin of ousted dictator late father.
Pictures show men in military fatigues carrying the flag of the revolution standing around the burning coffin of who ruled the country for 29 years before his death and the succession of his son Bashar.
Hafez Al-Assad was a former air force pilot who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
The coffin was set alight in his mausoleum in the of Qardaha, near Latakia.
after rebels took control of the country’s capital Damascus.
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The mausoleum is the latest building to be stormed by rebels (Image: Aaref WATAD / AFP)
while statues of the Assad dictators were torn down across the country.
He later , prompting following 14 years of civil war.
In that time Al-Assad, with the help of Russian air support and Iranian backed fighters, is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.
In 2013, reports emerged of the dictator using chemical weapons in the rebel stronghold of Ghouta, crossing a “red line” declared by US president the previous year.
Despite this, the US and partners failed to act, with parliament voting against military intervention in the region.