Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
made a rare public appearance on Friday for holiday prayers at a Damascus mosque, state media reported.
Assad attended morning prayers at the Al-Hamad mosque in northwest Damascus on Eid al-Fitr, the Moslem holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the SANA news agency reported.
He was accompanied by "high-ranking officials from the (ruling Baath) party and from the state," it added.
Photographs published by the news agency showed a smiling Assad surrounded by religious figures.
A photograph published by the president's official Twitter account showed him kneeling in prayer beside other officials.
The mosque's imam, Sheikh Mohammad Sharif al-Sawaf, "prayed to God to save Syria, its leader, its army and its people, and to bring victory against its enemies".