NOVANEWS
Zoabi : Reports that Rockets hits President Bashar al-Assad’s convoy are ‘Dreams and Illusions’
Syria’s information minister has denied rebel claims that they attacked President Bashar al-Assad’s convoy.
Reports that rockets hit his motorcade were “dreams and illusions”, Omran Zoabi told Syrian state TV.
Rebels said they fired mortars at his convoy as it headed towards the Anas bin Malek mosque in the Malki area, where the president has a residence.
Pictures showed President Bashar al-Assad unharmed at a prayer service at a Damascus mosque to mark the end of Ramadan.
Earlier, Islam Alloush of the militant Liwa al-Islam Brigade, told Reuters news agency the president’s motorcade was hit as it drove to the mosque in the Syrian capital.
Opposition activists and residents also reported what seemed to be the sound of several incoming mortar explosions in the early morning.
However it is not clear if the reported blasts in the district were connected to the presidential visit. President Assad drove his own car to the mosque, Mr Zoabi told state TV.
In his third public appearance in little more than a week, the president was seen alongside Syria’s grand mufti, for Eid al-Fitr prayers, which are usually held an hour or two after sunrise. In previous years, President Assad has been seen attending them early in the morning.
‘Different convoy’
All roads leading to the Rawdha neighbourhood of Damascus, where the presidential office is, were closed for security reasons before the incident, Syrian opposition sources told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station.
Firas al-Bitar, a rebel leader, told al-Arabiya that 17 mortars had targeted the presidential convoy. The opposition had been given advance information on Mr Assad’s movements, he asserted.
But another of the president’s opponents, Wahid Sagar, told al-Arabiya the president might have been in a different convoy to one which reportedly came under attack.
