Rifaat Ali al-Assad (; born 22 August 1937) is the younger brother of the former
President of Syria,
Hafez Assad and
Jamil Assad, and the uncle of the incumbent President
Bashar al-Assad. He is alleged by some sources to be the commanding officer responsible for the
Hama massacre of 1982. Recently declassified material back his claims that his brother Hafez al-Assad was responsible, as do a number of commentators. He himself has always denied responsibility. He currently lives in France.