Assad Is ‘Tool’ or Disconnected From Reality, U.S. Says
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s denial that he ordered the violent crackdown on protesters suggests that he is either a “tool” of others in the regime or he is “completely disconnected” from reality, said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
“There was no command to kill or be brutal,” Assad said yesterday in a pre-recorded television interview with ABC News in Damascus. When asked whether his security forces acted too harshly, he said: “They are not my forces. They are military forces that belong to the government. I don’t own them.”