President Bashar Al-Assad makes rare public appearance

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare appearance in public on Saturday to unveil a statue at a Damascus university, state TV showed.

Large crowds of supporters could be seen surrounding Assad and cheering, while patriotic music played.

He later made a statement where he called on Syrians to live as much of a normal life as possible.

"Throughout history and across cultures, terrorism has been the weapon of the cowardly. Only someone that is weak and cowardly uses terrorism as his weapon. That's why they attacked the students and teachers, but once they saw the Syrian military, they fled, those cowards," Assad said.

"When they saw one person had opened his bakery to sell bread, they began to feel scared. When they saw a student going to his university to offer knowledge to his country, they also got scared. So when we live our life and have as much of a normal life in the country, they will break down. So our challenge, and to our fallen who we count as martyrs, is to have our country move the way it did, as much as possible. God willing," he added.

Assad's public engagement came close on the heels of an Israeli air strike which according to an Israeli official was targeting a shipment of missiles bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighbouring Lebanon.

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