Syrian President Bashar Assad denies ordering crackdown

President Bashar Assad has denied ordering a deadly crackdown in Syria, saying “no government in the world kills its people unless it’s led by a crazy person.”

In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters that is scheduled to air Wednesday night, the Syrian leader acknowledged that mistakes had been made but maintained that “there was no command to kill or be brutal.”

“There’s a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials,” he said, according to excerpts released by ABC News. “There is a big difference.”

His comments came as violence is escalating in Syria, where army defectors and others have taken up arms against security forces that activists and residents say are firing at peaceful demonstrators, torturing and killing detainees and using tanks against opposition strongholds. Opposition activists reported 15 people killed Wednesday, a claim that could not be independently verified.

The United Nations’ top human rights official, Navi Pillay, has accused government forces of gross violations, saying more than 4,000 people have been killed since the start of major antigovernment protests in March, including more than 300 children.

Assad demanded to see evidence. “Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?” he asked.

He laid blame for the bloodshed on criminals, religious extremists and terrorists sympathetic to Al Qaeda who he said were blending in with peaceful protesters.

“Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa,” he said. More than 1,100 soldiers and police officers are among the dead, according to his government.

Asked whether he regretted the violence, Assad said he had tried his best to protect people.

“You feel sorry for the lives that have been lost,” he said. “But you don’t feel guilty when you don’t kill people.”

Asked about excerpts released before the interview aired, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner accused Assad of dodging responsibility.

“I find it ludicrous attempting to hide behind some sort of shell game but also some sort of claim that he doesn’t exercise authority in his own country,” Toner said Tuesday. “There’s just no indication that he’s doing anything other than cracking down in the most brutal fashion on a peaceful opposition movement.”

Toner was referring to a comment Assad made in which he seemed to suggest he did not control Syria’s security forces.

“I don’t own them, I am president, I don’t own the country, so they are not my forces,” Assad said.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry, however, said Assad’s comment had been taken out of context and called Toner’s statement “nonprofessional” and “inexact,” according to the official Syrian Arab New Agency. The report did not elaborate.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com