THE brutal dictator behind one of the worst atrocities the world has seen this century got the job by accident.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was originally destined for a career in medicine.

But after his older brother Bassel was killed in a car crash in 1994, the younger Assad found himself being groomed for a completely different career.

Bashar was studying ophthalmology in London when his father Hafez, the president, recalled his son home to start learning the tricks of the trade.

When his father died in 2000, many hoped the educated and westernised Bashar would bring the long awaited economic and political reform Syrians demanded.

But it never happened and instead of being regarded as a revered leader, he now finds himself accused of war crimes, locked in a bitter civil war with rebels and battling Islamic State militants.

ACCIDENTAL RULER

The al-Assad family has held power in Syria since 1971. First it was Hafez al-Assad, then Bashar who has ruled since his father’s death.

According to the Lowy Institute’s Middle East expert Dr Rodger Shanahan, Hafez brought about stability after years of coups, but said this came at a huge cost and resulted in autocratic rule.

Dr Shanahan said many Syrians and people in the west hoped Bashar would bring change.

“He had the education, was comfortable with the west and had the glamorous wife,” Dr Shanahan said.

But that didn’t happen and in 2011, the Arab Spring uprising was taking hold across the region.

Dr Shanahan said many Syrians grew frustrated not just by the military influence but also at the apparent power close confidants had with the government.

“You can’t open up free speech in a closed political system,” he said.

GLAMOROUS MODERN WIFE

Asma al-Assad was raised in Britain by Syrian parents. Educated and glamorous, she worked as an investment banker before meeting her future husband in Britain in 2000 — just months before he became president.

From an elite Sunni family, her Muslim faith was also crucial — the Assads are Alawite and Syria is overwhelmingly Sunni.

As Syria’s First Lady, she was regarded as a style icon and received early praise for her progressive position on women’s rights and education.

The couple have three children.

RISE OF A DICTATOR

Assad has positioned himself as the lesser of evils in Syria and more legitimate and stable than the rebels and jihadists.

But his oppressive rule has been marked by appalling human rights violations and by silencing dissent.

One of Assad’s first orders of business after coming to power was ushering in the Damascus Spring, a period of free expression, the release of political prisoners and sweeping economic reforms

But the hopeful new era met a quick end by 2001, when the government cracked down on the political forums that had been thriving.

Assad soon retreated to older styles of repression and relied on the secret security police to enforce his demands.

A decade of repression and human rights abuses followed.

The media is state-controlled, the internet is censored and Syria remains a de facto single-party state with only Assad’s Ba’ath Party holding effective power.

The Assad regime has also been accused of using barrel bombs to kill civilians and destroy infrastructure, something Assad has denied.

Assad is also suspected of green-lighting the sarin gas attack that killed more than 1400 civilians in 2013.

Most recently, an Amnesty International report revealed 13,000 were secretly hanged at a military-run Saydnaya prison in Syria.

The Assad government also came under the spotlight last week after horrific footage shocked the world after a chemical attack killed more than 80 people in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province.

SPARKING A WAR

The Assads are not religiously extreme but belong to the Alawites strand of Islam.

While Syrians were not protesting against religious extremists, like in other Arab Spring countries, they were angry that long-promised economic and political reforms failed to eventuate.

In 2011, protests erupted in the southern Syrian city of Daraa following the detention of a group of boys who were accused of painting anti-government graffiti on the walls of their school.

Security forces opened fire, killing four people in the first deaths of the uprising. Demonstrations soon spread sparking a crackdown by Assad’s forces.

By July 2011, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had formed and the country slid into civil war.

REBELS OR ISLAMIC STATE?

Assad is facing a fight on two fronts, first with the rebels and secondly with Islamic State who have lost much territory in Syria, including the strategic and historic site of Palmyra.

And the messy, long and complicated war isn’t just a case of brave rebels versus an evil dictator either.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was formed from a combination of jihadists, some from Syria and others from elsewhere.

WHAT DOES ISLAMIC STATE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

Quite a lot actually.

By August 2013, rebel forces began to weaken thanks to poor co-ordination and infighting. IS fighters clashed with the rebels, establishing a presence in Aleppo.

By December that year, the government began an unprecedented campaign of dropping barrel bombs and IS expanded its presence in the eastern part of city.

But by the following month rebel forces united against IS, driving the extremists out of Aleppo. But government forces exploited the fighting to push the rebels back.

More than 55,000 jihadists had also been killed in the fighting so far, most of them from the Islamic State group or former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

WHAT DOES THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL?

The Syrian government controls all the provincial capitals expect Raqqa and Idlib.

The rest of Syria is controlled by rebels, Islamic State or Kurdish forces.

IS ASSAD LIKED?

Dr Shanahan said that depends on who you ask.

Domestically he’s generally favoured by the Alawites who have prospered and hold many key roles in the military and other government departments.

Other religious minorities including Christians and urban middle class Sunnis have also largely supported him.

But millions of others have suffered.

Across the Middle East, Assad is viewed with a mixed response.

Hafez al-Assad played the political game by redirecting resistance against Israel which won him support and funding from the Gulf countries.

But Dr Shanahan said he felt the winds of change shifting and ended up supporting the west in the Gulf war.

Bashar has fallen out of favour with the Saudis and also with Turkey.

“Iraqis have remained neutral with their support of Assad.” Dr Shanahan said.

“Jordanians just wish it would all go away and Lebanon have always had a funny stance with Syria.

“The Gulf states oppose Assad.”

WILL HE LOSE POWER?

Dr Shanahan said the Gulf States have been pressuring Assad to step down for years and that hasn’t worked.

However if allies Iran and Russia withdraw their support that could be a different story.

“The US has said their first priority in Syria is getting rid of the Islamic State and until that changes, I don’t see this situation changing anytime soon,” he said.

debra.killalea@news.com.au