Candid photos of Syria's Assad expose a world beyond the carefully crafted and repressive rule

BEIRUT — Personal photos of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad have surfaced from his abandoned residences, sparking ridicule among Syrians who until days ago were persecuted for criticizing his carefully crafted public image.

The intimate and candid photos, reportedly discovered in albums from Assad's mansions in the hills of Damascus and Aleppo, offer a stark contrast to the polished, glamorous image that Assad and his father projected as they led Syria for half a century.

Syrians have been fascinated by the background glimpses of a seemingly normal family that held the country in an iron grip and bombed some their fellow citizens regarded as a threat. The sharing of photos has become an extension of the dazed first hours after Assad's ouster a week ago, when everyday Syrians wandered the presidential palace and its disheveled signs of a rapid departure. Assad has been granted asylum in Russia.

For many Syrians who had endured forced imprisonment, displacement and oppression under the Assads, the photos serve as both a spectacle and a chance to exhale, even laugh.

One photo shows Assad's father, Hafez, in his underwear, striking a bodybuilder-like pose. Other images show Bashar Assad in a Speedo flexing his biceps, astride a motorcycle in his briefs and staring blankly in a kitchen, wearing underwear and a sleeveless undershirt.

''What is it with the Assad family and being photographed in their underwear? Highly interested in knowing the fantasy behind,'' journalist Hussam Hammoud wrote on X.

In the photos, Syrians can see the ophthalmologist in Assad and not the leader. In one, he's on a balcony teasing a girl sitting on his shoulders. In another, a young Assad places a ring on his wife's finger. In a third, he's seemingly taking a selfie.

Social media footage also has shown Syrians touring the Assads' opulent estates, revealing extravagant decor and possessions out of reach for many who lived through the country's civil war since 2011. Assad's wife, once featured in Vogue, epitomized the sophistication and luxury, and Syrians have uncovered jewelry boxes and designer goods.

Fueled by decades of persecution and a desire for vengeance, people have stripped the mansions of valuables and further exposed Assad's private world.

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