Clinton. Bashar al-Assad lost legitimacy

The US Secretary of State has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has "lost legitimacy", the BBC informs.

Speaking after a crowd attacked the US embassy in Damascus, Hillary Clinton said Mr Bashar was "not indispensable". She said: "President Assad is not indispensable and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power. Our goal is to see that the will of the Syrian people for a democratic transformation occurs."

Pro-government demonstrators have been taking part in protests outside both embassies for the past two days.

On Monday, an embassy official told the BBC that the compound had been assaulted by a "mob", but that no-one had been hurt.
The residence of the ambassador, Robert Ford, was later briefly attacked, the state department said.

The mob attack was apparently in retaliation for Ambassador Robert Ford's visit to Hama. But Washington has no regrets about his trip, saying it was intended to show the US stood by the Syrian people demonstrating peacefully, the BBC reports.