President Bashar al-Assad appeared in public yesterday for the first time since a bomb explosion killed four of his senior security officials.
Syrian president, Bashar Assad, during Eid prayers at the Hamad Mosque in Damascus Photo: REUTERS
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent
8:31PM BST 19 Aug 2012
Mr Assad attended prayers at al-Hamad mosque in Damascus marking the festival of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with state television cameras in attendance to record his presence.
He was accompanied by his foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, and his new prime minister, Wael al-Halki, who replaced Riyad al-Hijab, who defected earlier this month to Jordan. The absence of his vice-president, Farouq al-Shara, will add to rumours reported by Syrian exiles that he also attempted to defect but failed and is now being held under house arrest.
Mr Assad has avoided making the sort of rabble-rousing personal appearances to rally his supporters that Col Muammar Gaddafi did while facing the insurrection that toppled him in Libya last year. Statements have been issued in his name and he has been filmed with ministers but until now nothing has been done since the bombing to prove conclusively that he remains in Damascus, which has itself been the scene of fighting.
A month ago, a bomb explosion killed his brother-in-law, Assef al-Shawkat, and three other key figures in the battle to put an end to the uprising. His brother Maher was also said to have been injured in the blast.
Since then, rebels have seized half of Aleppo, Syria's second city, and extended control over large areas of the countryside in the north.
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Opposition groups said the fighting continued yesterday, despite the holiday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six children had died in an artillery attack on Maarat al-Numan in northern Idlib province, and 48 people in Syria overall.
The new United Nations and Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan this week, caused confusion by saying it was "too early" to say that it was time for President Assad to quit, the formal position of the Arab League since January, and then apparently backtracking by saying he didn't "know enough about what is happening" in the country.
His words, which brought an immediate rebuke from the opposition Syrian National Council, will add to suspicion that the UN peace mission is now doing more harm than good by giving the international community another reason for failing to take decisive action to prevent the civil war becoming more bloody.
There was little international reaction to the bloodiest air strike of the war last week, when at least 40 and possible as many as 52 civilians died in a regime fighter attack on a densely populated area of the town of Aazaz, near the Syrian border.
Reports over the weekend have suggested that both Britain and Germany may be providing intelligence to the rebel cause via Turkey. But there is still no sign of any attempt to persuade either side to make concessions in return for peace, or of much military aid beyond small arms and some rocket-propelled grenades reaching the rebels from the Gulf, despite widespread support for their aim of removing the regime.
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