On 26 June 1980, an assassination attempt on Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian president, was carried out by Muslim Brotherhood supporters who threw two grenades and fired machine gun bursts at him as he waited for an African diplomat in the Guest Palace in Damascus.

[citation needed] The attack came in the context of the Islamist uprising in Syria.

The attack on the president prompted a series of deadly retaliation by the government troops, most notably the Tadmor prison massacre, carried out the next day.

Ten days later Law No.

49 was passed, making membership of the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense.