| Middle East Online | |||||
DAMASCUS
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad joined Eid al-Fitr prayers at a
mosque in third city Homs on Wednesday in a rare public appearance
outside the capital for the end-of-Ramadan holiday.
Large
parts of Homs were once under the control of rebels fighting to
overthrow Assad's regime but since May 2014 they have been confined to a
single besieged neighbourhood in the city's outskirts.
The
Al-Safa mosque, where Assad joined worshippers, is in Akrama, a
loyalist neighbourhood which has been hit by repeated attacks by the
Islamic State group and its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda.
State
television broadcast footage of the president in the congregation
alongside Islamic Endowments Minister Mohammad Abdel-Sattar Sayyed and
Syria's top Muslim cleric Ahmad Badredine Hassoun.
Since the civil war erupted in 2011, Assad has made only rare public appearances and nearly all of those have been in Damascus.
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