Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa was born in October 1982 in Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first seven years of his life. In a rare photograph of him as a child, found in a dossier compiled by Assad’s intelligence services, Sharaa has the same unsmiling, enigmatic expression he is often seen wearing today.

Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible,

Fighting between security forces and pro-Assad militants is worst in years; death toll, mostly of Alawites, considered among highest in Syria since 2013 chemical weapon attack