Assad said that his children were on vacation in the annexed Crimea
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad mentioned at a meeting with Russian parliament members that his children were at Artek children camp in the Crimea last year, RIA Novosti reports, citing the coordinator of the State Duma group on relations with the parliament of Syria, Dmitry Sablin.
"First of all we would like to focus on [political] party related work with young people, organize two-week long camps. My children were in Artek last year," Sablin quoted Assad as saying. Bashar Assad has two sons, Hafez and Karim, and a daughter named Zeyn.
On April 14, the United States, the United Kingdom and France made air strikes against facilities associated with the Syrian chemical weapons program. Those attacks were the Western response to the chemical attack on the Syrian city of Douma on April 7.
Ukraine, NATO, the EU and Japan supported missile strikes against Syria. China, Belarus and Iran have spoken out against such actions. Putin called the attack "an act of aggression."