Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: wiki commons.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has ordered his military to launch ballistic missiles at Israel if he is killed,  according to the Israeli online newspaper Inyan Merkazi.

The website reported that Assad met with his top generals recently to express concerns that he could be killed by advanced American missiles recently provided to rebel forces, or by a violent mob similar to the one that violently murdered Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Should either of those scenarios become reality, Assad reportedly told the generals to unleash Syria’s considerable missile arsenal on Israel and Egypt.

The thinking behind the attack on Israel would be for Assad to preserve a lasting legacy as someone who confronted, and ultimately tried to destroy Israel.

As for the attack on Egypt, Assad is angry at the country because of the new Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government’s support for Syrian rebel groups, many of which are fellow Islamists.

On Sunday government airstrikes in and around Damascus killed at least 45 people, including eight children. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that 24 of the dead, including all eight children, were killed by government air strikes and artillery in eastern Ghouta district.

The Observatory said that Sunday’s bombardment was among the heaviest of Syria 22-month-old conflict.