A bashful Bashar might blush at this.
Jihadi rebels invading President Bashar al-Assad’s palace in Aleppo last week came across a photo of the Syrian leader as a young man, sporting nothing but a tiny Speedo.
The photo shows the embattled dictator posing demurely alongside three others clad in swimsuits and perched on the side of a boat in the night, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The picture quickly gained attention on social media.
“A photo found in the palace of the idiot and criminal Bashar al-Assad,” a Syrian X user posted on Thursday.
“May Allah forgive you, you ruined our morning with this sight,” one woman commented in response to the photograph.
The cheeky relic comes amid reports Saturday that Assad has fled Damascus as Islamic-backed rebel forces closed in on the capital.
Assad’s office dubbed the reports “rumors and false news” and claimed he “is following up on his work and national and constitutional duties from the capital” despite protests erupting there.
Armed opposition groups have seized several cities in southern and northern Syria during a shocking 10-day offensive that began in Aleppo at the start of December and continued on to cities across the north and south.
The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition groups aiming to overthrow the brutal regime.
