Newly published footage by the Saudi news network, Al-Arabiya, shows previous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad driving through Ghouta in Damascus in 2018 after his forces fully took over the area. As Bashar al-Assad was driving through the demolished neighbourhoods, he is heard saying “To hell with Ghouta” and laughed together with his passengers. He then gave a derogatory description of the people of Ghouta describing them as people who have no money, and spend all their money on places of worships like the people in the time of the Pharaohs.
The passengers in the car were his personal media advisor, Luna al-Shibli and her assistant Amjad Issa. Luna al-Shibli died in a car crash in Damascus in 2024 and the footage is believed to have been leaked by Amjad Issa.
Ghouta was the scene of heavy fighting between the regime’s forces and the Syrian rebels and the regime punished the Ghouta neighbourhoods with a massive chemical weapons attack. On August 21, 2013, Bashar al-Assad’s forces, led by General Maher al-Assad of the 4th Armored Division, General Ghassan Abbas, Director of Branch 450 of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) and General Bassam al-Hassan, fired rocket barrages loaded with the nerve agent, sarin in the neighbourhoods of eastern and western Ghouta, just outside Damascus.More than 1,144 people were killed, including 426 children, after having breathed the toxic nerve agent. The rockets were fired with Soviet and Syrian-made rocket launchers.
The whole area was finally captured in March 2018. The footage below shows Bashar al-Assad driving through Ghouta after its takeover in March 2018. At the end, you can also watch the previously released official government footage of Assad giving a speech to his forces in Ghouta of the same trip.
Newsroom
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