Damascus — State television said Assad visited the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on Thursday, Aug. 1, to meet members of the security forces.

A picture posted on the presidency’s Facebook page showed Assad, in a suit, shaking the hand of a uniformed soldier. Behind them was a scene of war; wires hanging from electricity pylons near an apartment block damaged by an explosion. No civilians could be seen.

Assad assured his troops of victory

“If we were not sure that we were going to win in Syria, we would not have the ability to resist and the ability to continue fighting for more than two years against the enemy,” state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying.

Meanwhile, a huge explosion hit the central Syrian city of Homs, blasting a fireball hundreds of meters into the air, a video posted on the internet, on Aug. 1, showed.

Activists said the explosion, which appeared to be significantly larger than most bombs used daily by either side in the two-year-old Syrian conflict, ripped through the southeastern neighborhood of al-Nozha, killed 40 people and injured 120.

The neighborhood is majority Alawite, the same sect as Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said casualties were soldiers and civilians, and some of the wounded were in a critical condition.