Although Bashar al-Assad inherited Syria’s presidency on his father’s death in 2000, analysts say he does not have Hafez al-Assad’s absolute grip on power. He is surrounded by military and intelligence figures, most of whom are either related to the president or are members of his minority Alawite community.

The president’s youngest brother is said to be Syria’s second most powerful man. He heads the Republican Guard, the elite force whose six brigades protect the regime from domestic threats, and commands the fourth armoured division, considered one of the army’s best-equipped and highly-trained.

Born in 1967, Maher studied at the University of Damascus. He later followed his older brother Basil into the military. Some thought he might be named Hafez’s successor after Basil’s death in 1994, but he was too young and Bashar was chosen.

Maher (left) is said to have helped persuade Bashar (right) to put an end to talk of reform

Before his promotion to general, Maher commanded a Republican Guard brigade. This provided him with valuable military experience and allowed him to establish personal ties with many officers.

In 2000, shortly after Bashar became president, Maher became a member of Baath Party’s second highest body, the Central Committee.

He has a reputation for being excessively violent and emotionally unstable, and allegedly shot and wounded his brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat.

In 2000, Maher is reported to have helped persuade Bashar to put an end to the political openness seen during the first few months of his rule – the short-lived “Damascus Spring”. Years of suppression followed.

Three years later, Israeli media said Maher had attended a series of informal meetings in Jordan with the director of Israel’s foreign minister and two Israeli-Arab businessmen to discuss resuming peace talks.

In 2005, Maher and Shawkat were both mentioned in a preliminary report by UN investigators as one of the people who might have planned the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.

When mass pro-democracy protests began in the southern city of Deraa in March 2011, Maher’s fourth armoured division – a successor to Rifaat al-Assad’s Defence Brigades which is deployed on Syrian territory bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and controls the capital’s approaches – was sent in to crush them. Human rights activists say dozens of people have since been killed.

At one protest in Deraa, many shouted slogans denouncing Maher, including: “Maher you coward. Send your troops to liberate the Golan.”

By late April, witnesses said the fourth division’s tanks had cut off Deraa and were shelling residential areas, while troops were storming homes and rounding up people believed to have been taking part in the protests.

The US subsequently announced sanctions against Maher, saying the fourth division had “played a leading role in the Syrian regime’s actions in Deraa”. The EU also imposed sanctions on Maher, describing him as the “principal overseer of violence against demonstrators”.

In May 2011, a video emerged purportedly showing Maher, dressed in a leather jacket and surrounded by police officers, firing a rifle at unarmed protesters in the Damascus suburb of Barzeh.

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