Back in Damascus, militant leader confident of post-Assad unity

DAMASCUS: Syrian militant leader Riad Al-Asaad said on Sunday he was confident that the myriad of factions which helped topple Bashar Assad after years of war will now unite as one force. Asaad, a former colonel, defected from the Syrian air force in July 2011, early in the Assad government’s crackdown of democracy protests that spiraled into civil war. He went on to found the Free Syrian Army (FSA), one of the main opposition factions during the 13-year war, and lost a leg in March 2013 in a bomb attack on his car in eastern Syria.