Syrian president denies ordering deadly crackdown

SYRIAN president Bashar al-Assad has denied ordering the killing of thousands of protesters and said “only a crazy person” would target his own people, as global pressure mounted on his regime.

In a rare interview, Assad said that he was not responsible for the nine months of bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and the military — an assertion that the United States called “ludicrous”.

“We don’t kill our people,” Assad told US network ABC. “No government in the world kills its people, unless it’s led by a crazy person.”