In 1982 Assad responded to an insurrection in the city of Hama by sending a paramilitary force to indiscriminately kill between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians including children, women, and the elderly.

The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was formed in the late 1950s, spawned by the original Egyptian-based organization. For years it was relatively quiet, but this ended on June 16, 1979, when the Vanguard Combatants (At-Tali'a al-Muqatila), an Islamist cell,[9] massacred a number of military cadets near Aleppo. Most of the murdered cadets were 'Alawites, the minority religious sect from which the Assad family comes. The Baath-dominated Syrian People's Council passed an additional emergency law soon thereafter, which declared membership in the Muslim Brotherhood punishable by death.[10] After a group of 200 Islamists staged an insurrection in Hama, Syria's fifth largest city, Hafez al-Assad called on his brother Rifaat to put down the revolt. Using the paramilitary Saraya ad-Difa'a (Defense Platoons), with air force and infantry support, the Syrian government retook the city, indiscriminately killing between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians including children, women, and the elderly. Since then, the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced violence, but it remains true to its goal of transforming Syria into a religious state (http://www.meforum.org/683/syrian-reform-what-lies-b...).