Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with his wife, Asma. Photo: Rakkar.

Syrian President Bashar Assad secretly sent his three children out of Syria to an unknown destination in Western Europe last week, a senior Egyptian official has told Israel Hayom.

On Thursday night, Feb. 2, a heavily protected convoy transported Assad’s children from Damascus to a secure military airport north of the city, and reportedly came under fire by rebels who assumed that the convoy was carrying someone important.

Israel Hayom learned from the Egyptian official that as well as Assad’s children – Hafez, 11, Zein, 9, and Karim, 7—the convoy contained Assad’s mother, Anisa Makhlouf al-Assad, and the children of some of his relatives, including those of his millionaire cousin Rami Makhlouf.

A private plane was designated for the operation and reportedly headed first for an Arab country – apparently Sudan or Yemen – and later flew to an unknown western European country.