Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied his responsibility for the bloody crackdown on dissent and said he did not feel guilty for the crimes committed by “extremists” and “terrorists” in his country.
"I did my best to protect the people, so I cannot feel guilty," Assad said in an interview with U.S. broadcaster ABC aired on Wednesday.
“You feel sorry for the lives that have been lost. But you don't feel guilty when you don't kill people,” he said.
He said he had not given orders to kill protesters.
"There was no command to kill or to be brutal," he said, adding that the Syrian security forces were not solely under his control.
"I don't own them, I am president, I don't own the country so they are not my forces,” he said.
"Armed criminal gangs,” “religious extremists” and al Qaeda-orchestrated “terrorists” are to blame for the violence in Syria, Assad said.
"Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not vice versa," he said, adding that 1,100 soldiers and police were among those killed in the unrest.
The United Nations said more than 4,000 people had been killed in Syria since anti-government protests broke out in the country in March, but Assad said the account was doubtful.
“Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?” he said.
Assad admitted that some “mistakes” were made by “individual” Syrian officials, who had been punished.
“There is a difference between having a policy to crack down and between some mistakes committed by some officials. There is a big difference,” he said.
