Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa appears in a video using new currency after officials deny reports of a shooting incident at the Damascus presidential palace.
BEIRUT: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has appeared in a widely circulated video using the country’s new currency.
The video surfaced on Monday after his interior ministry denied reports of a shooting incident at his palace.
Social media users had for days circulated reports of gunfire at the palace overlooking Damascus on December 30.
Earlier on Monday, Syrian authorities denied Sharaa had been targeted in any security incident.
Two sources told AFP a shooting took place in Damascus’s presidential palace last week.
In the Monday evening video, Sharaa was shown buying items from a shop in Damascus using the new Syrian currency.
The new currency went into circulation on January 1.
Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said reports of a security incident targeting Sharaa were “totally baseless”.
“We categorically affirm that these claims are entirely false,” he said.
A diplomat from a country supporting Syria’s new Islamist authorities told AFP a shooting took place at the presidential palace on December 30.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity.
Separately, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP a shooting inside the palace lasted “around 12 minutes”.
He said the incident left several people wounded.
Abdel Rahman said the incident was caused by “an internal dispute” between individuals at the palace.
He clarified the shooting did not target President Sharaa.
The Syrian leader, who appears sporadically, had not been seen in public since he unveiled the new currency last Monday.
