Syrian President Stays Out of Sight After Damascus Bombing
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Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images(DAMASCUS, Syria) — Why hasn’t Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made any public statement yet about Wednesday’s bomb attack at the national security office in Damascus that killed at least three senior officials?
Speculation is rife that al-Assad might have also been at the meeting when an explosion killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, who is al-Assad’s brother-in-law, and a top aide.
As of now, the whereabouts of al-Assad and his family are unknown and rumors are rampant that perhaps the president and his kin might have been wounded in the same bombing.
A Syrian opposition activist has alleged that the presidential jet was seen taking off from Damascus following the blast and might have been headed for the Mediterranean port city of Latakia.
However, Syrian state media is trying to fight back against the rumors, stating that al-Assad appointed General Fahd Jassem Freij as Syria’s new defense minister and deputy commander-in-chief of the army.
Meanwhile, even if al-Assad was unharmed, a senior White House official says the Syrian president must have been deeply shaken that the Free Syrian Army was able to assassinate his brother-in-law, considered “one of the most powerful hard-line officials in the country.”
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