Assad 'confident' of Russian support

In a rare television interview, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed confidence Tuesday that Russia will continue supporting his beleaguered regime.

Speaking to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah's Al-Manar television network, Assad was convinced Moscow would maintain its support for his government, which is currently fighting a two-front war against rebels as well as the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group.

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah, along with Russia and Iran, have been Assad's major allies since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

"We have strong confidence in the Russians, as they have proven throughout this crisis, for four years, that they are sincere and transparent in their relationship with us," Assad said in the interview.

Assad described Russia as "principled," while criticizing the United States, a nation that the Syrian leader said, "abandons its allies, abandons its friends."

"This was never the case with Russia's policy, neither during the Soviet Union, nor during the time of Russia," Assad said. "Russia has never said that it supported President such and such and then decided to abandon him."

Assad said Iran, too, remained a strong ally, adding that the recent nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers would strengthen the country's role in international affairs, benefiting Syria.

"The power of Iran is the power of Syria, and a victory for Syria is a victory for Iran," Assad said. "We are on the same axis, the axis of resistance," he added.

Hundreds killed in Syrian government air strikes

Assad's comments come as a monitoring group claimed Tuesday that Syrian government air strikes east of the capital of Damascus have killed 247 people in the last 10 days, including 50 children, and wounded more than 1,000.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the single worst attack occurred on August 16, when 117 people died in apparent government shelling on a market area in the city of Douma, in northwestern Syria.

The air strikes have coincided with a wider escalation of the four-year-old civil war estimated to have killed nearly a quarter of a million people and driven in excess of 11 million from their homes.

The United States and other western nations have long called for Assad's ouster, insisting he could not play a role in a political solution to Syria's crisis.

bw/lw (Reuters, AFP)