Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a rare interview dismissed claims that his regime is using chlorine gas and barrel bombs on the Syrian people as "propaganda" but rather, blames the media. Assad said that reports of chlorine gas and barrel bombs used by the government are "part of the malicious propaganda against Syria...because, as you know, in the media when it bleeds, it leads." Syria's civil war has entered its fifth year earlier with over 200,000 people killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another 3.9 million people have fled the country, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
