• By Associated Press, Published: October 17
    CAIRO — Syria’s wealthy, long cultivated by President Bashar Assad as a support for his regime, are seeing their businesses pummeled by the bloody civil war. Factories have been burned down or damaged in fighting. International sanctions restrict their finances. Some warn that their companies are in danger of going under, worsening the country’s buckling economy.Assad may not have lost the backing of Syria’s business elite, but some are losing faith. Many of those who can have fled abroad, hoping to ride out the turmoil, which is now in its 19th month and is only getting worse as rebels and regime forces tear apart the country in their fight for power.

    Several businessmen interviewed by The Associated Press say resentment is growing against Assad over the crisis — but they also aren’t throwing their lot in with the rebellion. They are hunkering down, trying to salvage their companies.full article here