Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took part this Saturday in the Eid al-Adha prayer, on the first day of this great Muslim holiday, in a mosque in the city of Aleppo, a former rebel stronghold in the north of the country. , said the official Sana agency.
Bashar al-Assad has been in Aleppo, Syria's second city and economic capital, since Friday.
This is his first visit to this city since the outbreak of war in 2011.
Aleppo has since 2012 been the scene of fierce fighting between government forces on the one hand and rebel factions and the Islamic State (IS) group on the other.
The city was finally taken over by the regime in 2016, with crucial help from Russia which intervened militarily.
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Bashar al-Assad attended the Eid al-Adha prayer in the Abdallah Ben Abbas mosque
", indicated the Sana agency, relaying the wishes of the Syrian president to the population and the soldiers on the occasion of the feast of the Sacrifice.
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The agency also released images showing Bashar al-Assad enjoying a walkabout, surrounded by clerics and worshipers who sought to shake his hand after prayers.
On Friday, Bashar al-Assad and his family visited the historic Umayyad mosque in Aleppo and strolled through the souks of the old city.
On the same day, the Syrian president visited the power plant in Aleppo, in the east of the eponymous province, and witnessed the reopening of a water pumping station, two infrastructures that had been destroyed during the conflict. .
The war in Syria has claimed around 500,000 lives since 2011, devastated the country's infrastructure and displaced millions of people.
The battle for control of the city of Aleppo is considered the most important victory for the government forces and the biggest setback for the opposition factions that controlled the eastern districts of the city.
The regime has not taken over the entire province, however, with the border strip with Turkey being controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces on one side and Ankara-backed Syrian factions on the other.
