Assef Shawkat, the regime’s brother in law

President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, was also the deputy defense minister since September 2011. He previously served as the army's deputy chief of staff from July 2009 to September 2011.                 

He was one of an inner circle of security chiefs focused on the Assad family, one of the top three in the regime, alongside the president's younger brother Maher.                

In 2010 Shawkat lost his job as head of military intelligence, possibly for failing to prevent the assassination of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus two years earlier.                  

Nevertheless Shawkat was an important figure in the Ministry of Defense, though the army was under the de facto control of Maher al-Assad, the president's brother.                  

Shawkat's importance at the center of power was unquestioned. He was targeted by US and EU sanctions for his role in directing the suppression of the uprising.

Born in 1950 to an Alawite family, he emerged from obscurity to rise up the ranks in the Syrian army but rose to real prominence with his marriage in 1995 to Assad's sister, Bushra, 10 years his junior but a highly influential family member who serves as the president's assistant.                 

He was killed alongside Hasan Turkmani, Minister of Defense Dawoud Rajiha  on 18 July 2012 in the explosion that targeted the Syrian National Security Building.