DAMASCUS, Syria
(AP) -- Mortar rounds on Thursday hit an upscale district of Damascus
where President Bashar Assad attended prayers to mark the start of a
major Muslim holiday in a rare attack in the high security area.
A
Syrian rebel brigade claimed it fired mortar shells that hit Assad's
motorcade in the Malki district of the capital, but Syrian state TV
broadcast images of the Syrian leader attending prayers and the
information minister denied reports that the president had been
attacked.
An Islamic rebel brigade, Liwaa
Tahrir al-Sham, said it fired several 120 mm shells in the direction of
Assad's motorcade after carrying out careful surveillance of its route.
The
claim was made on the group's Facebook and Twitter pages and could not
be independently confirmed. The brigade's head, Firas al-Bitar, told
Al-Arabiya TV that the motorcade had been hit but that it was not
certain whether Assad himself had been harmed.
Assad
has a residence in the upscale district that has largely been sheltered
from the shellings and battles that usually rage in the city's
impoverished suburbs. However, it was not clear if Assad has stayed in
Malki in recent months.
Information Minister
Omran al-Zoubi dismissed the attack claims as "rumours" and told state
TV that Assad drove his own car to the Anas bin Malik Mosque, located in
the heart of Malki.
It was the Syrian
leader's third public appearance in over a week as his regime tries to
capitalize on recent gains on the battlefield against rebels fighting to
oust him from power.
In the state TV
broadcast, Assad, dressed in a suit, was seen praying alongside Syria's
grand mufti at the start of Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday that ends
the holy month of Ramadan. The Eid prayers are typically an hour or two
after sunrise. In previous years, Assad has been seen attending them
early in the morning.
The Britain-based
Observatory for Human Rights which closely monitors the fighting in
Syria said only three mortar shells hit Malki early in the morning. The
neighborhood has rarely been targeted by opposition forces during the
conflict, which last year brought the rebels and their battle to the
heart of the capital.
There were no immediate
reports of casualties or damage in the shelling, which was confirmed by
Malki residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their
own safety.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the
Observatory's head, said he had no confirmation that Assad's motorcade
had been hit and was skeptical of the reports.
Syria's
state news agency said several mortar shells also hit the capital's
suburb that is home to the golden-domed Shiite shrine of Sayeda Zeinab,
the Prophet Muhammad's granddaughter, which is popular with Iranian
worshippers and tourists. The attacks caused casualties, the SANA news
agency said, but gave no details.
Assad's
troops have recently been on the offensive in central Syria, making
advances near the border with Lebanon and in the city of Homs, an
opposition stronghold and Syria's third largest city.
On
Wednesday, Syrian government troops ambushed a large group of rebels
trudging through a desert road northeast of Damascus, killing more than
60 fighters.
In the north, where much of the
territory has been under opposition control in the past year, rebels
scored a rare victory earlier this week when they captured a major air
base in the Aleppo province near the border with Turkey.
Syria's
crisis started as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad's rule in
March 2011. It turned into a civil war after opposition supporters took
up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown. More than 100,000 people
have been killed in the violence so far, according to U.N. figures.
---
Surk reported from Beirut.
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