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How Assad Weathered Storm In Arab Spring Aftermath

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  Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook D eposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had been on the run for two months after the fall of Tripoli when rebels found him in a stormwater pipe near Sirte on October 20, 2011. He cowered as they held him by his arms, curly hair and frog-marched him out of the stinky pipe soaked in blood. Gaddafi, 69, was tortured before he was summarily executed. The ignominious end of the dictator, who had ruled Libya since 1969 and given himself lofty titles like “King of Kings of Africa’’, came months after Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s fall encouraged pro-democracy protests (Arab Spring) in the region. The protests threatened to uproot autocrats across the region as Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to quit while Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was toppled. ALSO READ: Why Years Before Taliban Takeover, Afghan Diplomat Khalili Saw It Coming  In Syria, the challenge to  Bashir al-Assad’s rule coincided with that of Gaddafi’s when protests erupted