BEIRUT: Syria's President Bashar Assad visited Saturday the Martyrs’ Monument in Damascus on the anniversary of the Oct. 6, 1973, Arab-Israeli war, Syrian state news reported.

“On the occasion of the October 6 [1973] war of liberation that returned the dignity to the Umma [Arab and Islamic nation], the president visited [Saturday] the martyrs’ monument in Jabal Qassioun,” SANA, the official government news agency said.

In pictures on the website, Assad could be seen laying a wreath on the monument.

The “October War of 1973,” known by the Israelis as “Yom Kippur War,” was the fourth major conflict between the Arab states of Syria and Egypt against the Jewish state. Syrians commonly refer to it as the “War of Liberation.”