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LequteMan
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Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad marks his 48th birthday today as the threat of US-led strikes against his regime apparently receding.
A Syrian pro-regime site called on residents of the capital Damascus to demonstrate their support for Assad by joining a convoy of cars in the Mazzeh district to honour him.
Assad is a British-trained ophthalmologist who has three children.
He succeeded his father Hafez, who died in 2000.
He came to the position of heir unexpectedly, after his brother Bassel was killed in a car accident.
Once considered a potential reformer, who discussed the need for political and economic openness after he took office, Assad has responded with an iron fist to an uprising that began in March 2011.
More than 110,000 people have been killed in the violence that erupted after his forces cracked down on demonstrators calling for his ouster, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He marks his birthday as the threat of imminent US-led strikes against his regime appears to have waned.