Syrian President Visits Areas Hit by Fires
Assad’s public visits to areas around Syria have been rare since the country’s foreign-backed militancy began in March 2011.
State news agency SANA said Assad visited the village of Ballouran to inspect the damage and met the local population during a tour to some areas that were affected by the fires, which were brought under control on Sunday.
SANA did not say whether the visit took place Tuesday or earlier.
It said Assad was accompanied by the ministers of local administration and agriculture and vowed to help residents replant the burnt areas.
Wildfires broke out in several Middle Eastern countries last week amid a heat wave that is unusual for this time of the year, leaving Syria particularly hard-hit. Three people were killed in the wildfires that also burned wide areas of forests, mostly in Latakia and the central province of Homs, according to AP.
On Saturday, special prayers for rain were held in mosques around different parts of Syria, in hopes that rain would ease the drought and stop the fires.
Assad’s hometown of Qardaha in Latakia province was hard hit by the fires that heavily damaged a building used as storage for the state-owned tobacco company, part of which collapsed.
