Bashar al-Assad should be tried for war crimes: Egypt`s Mursi

Washington: Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has backed calls by people in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad to be tried for war crimes. Assad`s effort to crush anti-government protests in 2011 has turned into a bloody civil war in which the United Nations estimates that over 60,000 people have been killed. In his first televised address since June on Sunday, Assad said that Syria was under "an external attack" by "extremists, who only know the language of killing and criminality." According to CNN, when asked whether he thought the Syrian leader should be tried before the International Criminal Court for war crimes, Mursi said, "It is not I who want this, but the Syrian people who want this." Mursi also repeated his previous calls for al-Assad to leave power, the report said. Egypt’s first democratically elected President also said that his country would work for Arab and international support to replace al-Assad. (ANI)