REPORT: Syria's Assad performs Eid prayers in Homs - state TV

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Homs on Wednesday (July 6) where he joined a congregation for Eid prayers, Syrian state television reported.

Syrian TV showed footage of Assad performing Eid prayer at al-Safa mosque in Homs alongside Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the holiest month for the world's more than one billion Muslims, during which observant believers fast from dawn to dusk. Muslims around the world usually celebrate by breaking the fast they have upheld from a month with new clothes and family reunions around big meals.

Assad is fighting a civil war that has ruined the country economically and fragmented it regions.

The Damascus-based government now controls most of the war-torn country's major population centers in the west, with the exceptions of Idlib and the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, once Syria's biggest city.

Kurdish forces control vast areas along the Turkish border, and Islamic State holds Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in the east.

 

REUTERS