Dec. 9 (UPI) -- President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was ousted over the weekend by jihadist-led rebels and has fled to Russia, ending his family's five-decade rule of the Middle Eastern country. Bashar al-Assad led the Syria with an iron fist and quelled domestic dissent while resisting international isolation and condemnation. He survived a nearly 15-year civil war, but was ultimately undone by a fast-moving insurgency led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, less than two weeks after it started its march