DAMASCUS — Syria's Interior Ministry on Monday denied rumors circulating online about a security incident targeting President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and senior officials, describing the claims as "completely false." Interior Ministry spokesman Nour Al-Din Al-Baba said in a post on Facebook that reports alleging an attack on the president or other leaders were unfounded. "We categorically affirm the falsity of these allegations in their entirety," Al-Baba said. "We call on citizens and all media outlets to exercise accuracy and responsibility, and not to obtain news except from official, accredited sources." The official denial followed a wave of claims spread by accounts on Facebook and X that lacked credible sourcing and formed part of what Syrian state media described as a deliberate disinformation campaign. Social media users over the past two days circulated misleading images generated using artificial intelligence tools, falsely claiming that President Al-Sharaa had been injured in a security breach in Damascus and that one of his aides had been wounded. Sham Network reported that the campaign was accompanied by fabricated images and allegations, including claims attributed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights about injuries to senior figures, helicopter movements toward Idlib and military aircraft activity at Mezzeh Airport, in an attempt to lend credibility to the scenario. Separately, Information Minister Hamza Mustafa urged caution and restraint in dealing with rumors about the "fall of Al-Sharaa's government by the end of the year," saying such claims were aimed not only at spreading false information but also at testing the response of state institutions and pushing them toward specific political and media reactions. In a post on X, Mustafa said the rumors originated from Israeli accounts before events in Sweida and later spread through media platforms linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as accounts in neighboring countries. He said some media outlets associated with hostile parties also amplified the claims. Mustafa said completely ignoring rumors could negatively affect public opinion, while reacting emotionally would serve those behind the campaign. He stressed that official channels have denied any unusual developments in Damascus, adding that the goal of such rumors is to probe how state institutions respond to coordinated misinformation campaigns.
