Rifaat Ali al-Assad (Arabic: رفعت علي الأسد; 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.