Economy has been battered by corruption and 13 years of civil war. Coupled with international sanctions and mismanagement, inflation skyrocketed, pulling some 90% of the country into poverty.

When Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria, merchants like Youssef Rajab kept much of their imported stock hidden for fear of arrest for breaking the law. Previously, the few imported goods that were available were smuggled in from Lebanon by traders who risked arrest,

Syria’s first post-Assad protests broke out on Dec. 25 after a video claiming to show the destruction of an Alawite shrine spread rapidly across Facebook. The video was quickly debunked as several weeks old,

Once Syria's most influential minority, Alawites struggle to move on from their association with a hated dictator.