MAALULA (Syria): President Bashar al-Assad paid an Easter Sunday visit to a historic Christian town newly recaptured from Islamists, as rebels counter-attacked his forces in the key battleground city of Homs.

The surprise visit to Maalula, just north of Damascus, came as Pope Francis said in his Easter message that it was time for warring parties to “boldly negotiate” peace in Syria after three years of conflict estimated to have killed 150,000 people.

Assad’s regime has sought to portray itself as the protector of religious minorities against a revolt led by foreign-backed extremists, a notion his opponents dismiss as part of a divide-and-rule strategy also aimed at deterring Western support for rebels.

State television said that Assad, who has rarely appeared in public during the conflict, had visited Maalula’s Saint Sergius and Bacchus monastery damaged by “terrorists” -- his regime’s term for its armed opponents.

The channel and the president’s Facebook page posted pictures of him in Maalula. One showed him standing next to a Christian priest and holding what appeared to be damaged friezes showing the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. “Even the worst terrorists cannot erase our heritage and civilisation, “Assad was quoted as saying on television.