BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first appearance in public since a July bomb attack, attending prayers at a Damascus mosque to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid, state TV showed.
The first day of Eid on Sunday also gave Assad's opponents a chance to rally and activists reported protests around Syria, including in the capital, on a holiday that marked the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Fighting raged on around Syria, killing more than 100 people, an activist group reported.
Battling a 17-month-old uprising against 42 years of rule by his family, Assad was filmed at prayer with his prime minister and foreign minister but not with his vice president, Farouq al-Shara, whose reported defection was denied the previous day.
Shaken by a July 18 bomb attack in Damascus and defections - including that of his last prime minister - Assad's recent appearances on state TV had previously been restricted to footage of him conducting official business. He was shown swearing in the new prime minister a week ago.
Syria's civil war has intensified since the bombing that killed members of Assad's inner circle, including his defence minister and brother-in-law.
Assad was pictured on Sunday sitting cross-legged at a mosque in the Damascus residential district of Muhajirin listening to a sermon in which Syria was described as a victim of "terrorism" and a conspiracy hatched by the United States, Israel, the West and Arabs - a reference to Gulf States which back the revolt.
Sheikh Mohammad Kheir Ghantous said the plot would not "defeat our Islam, our ideology and our determination".
Dressed in a suit and tie, Assad smiled as he greeted officials including senior members of his Baath Party.
In attendance were Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and Prime Minister Wael al-Halki. He is the replacement for Riyad Hijab, a Sunni who has joined the opposition to Assad since his defection was announced on August 6.
Hijab was the highest-level Syrian official to desert the government so far.
With diplomatic efforts to end the war hampered by divisions between world powers and regional rivalries, Syria is facing the prospect of a prolonged conflict that threatens to destabilize the Middle East with its sectarian overtones, pitting a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition against the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs.