Asma shops while Syria in shambles
As bloodshed continues in Syria, president Assad's wife goes on online shopping spree, buying 130 pieces of furniture for £270,000
Bashar slaughters, Asma shops – British newspaper Daily Mail published on Sunday new emails that were obtained by WikiLeaks, exposed the over-the-top shopping habits of Syria's first lady.
According to the correspondence, President Bashar Assad's wife, Asma, purchased new furniture worth £270,000 ($420,000) from upscale London store DN Designs.
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Among more than 130 items designated for the family's presidential palace in the Syrian city of Latakia, were 11 ottomans costing over £20,000 ($31,000) in total, five chandeliers, a round table worth almost £10,000 ($15,000) and a Mamlouk rug for just under £11,000 ($17,000).
The emails were leaked on the backdrop of continued bloodshed across Syria, with over 200 people reportedly killed over the weekend in the town of Tremseh.
Shopoholic: 11 ottomans for over £20,000
The British-born first lady's wastefulness was first revealed at the beginning of the year when WikiLeaks published emails in which Asma talks about her passion for expensive clothing and furniture.
Meanwhile, Syria on Sunday denied UN claims that government forces used heavy weapons during a military operation that left scores dead and brought immediate international condemnation, while the International Committee of the Red Cross said it now considers the conflict in the country a civil war.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the violence Thursday was not a massacre as activists and many foreign leaders have asserted but a military operation targeting armed fighters who had taken control of the village of Tremseh. "What happened wasn't an attack on civilians," Makdissi told reporters in Damascus.
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