Bashar al-Assad, born on September 11, 1965, is a Syrian former politician, doctor, and military officer. He became a doctor in the 1980s and trained as an ophthalmologist in London in the early 1990s. Following the death of his elder brother Bassel al-Assad in 1994, he was recalled to Syria to become heir apparent. He entered the military academy and, by 1998, took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.