Damascus: The mother of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Anissa Makhlouf Al Assad, died on Saturday at the age of 86, state media reported.
The former first lady and widow of ex-president Hafez Al Assad died in a hospital in Damascus, the official Sana news agency reported.
The agency did not give a cause of death, but according to sources who were close to Anissa she had been ill for many years and had often travelled to Germany for treatment prior to 2012.
That year, the European Union included her on a list of dozens of Syrian figures, including Al Assad and other family members, slapping her with an asset freeze and travel ban.
Throughout Syria’s nearly five-year war and even when her husband ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years, she had kept a low profile and was rarely mentioned in the media.
Born in Latakia in 1930, she married Hafez Al Assad in 1957 and they had five children.
Two of them have died — Bassel, who was being groomed to become president, and Majd. Anissa is survived by Bashar, his younger brother Maher and their sister Bushra.
