Assad says worst of civil war ‘behind us’
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had said the worst of his country’s six-year war “is behind us” after a string of advances by his forces backed by key ally Russia. In recent months, Assad’s troops and allied fighters have retaken territory across the country, including recapturing all of Aleppo in December after years of fighting. “Things now are moving in the right direction,” Assad said in an interview in Damascus with an Indian TV station. “Unless the West and other countries and their allies, their puppets, support those extremists in a very massive way, I’m sure the worst is behind us,” he said. The interview was released by the Syrian presidency on Saturday. More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began in March 2011.