In a dramatic twist to the ongoing story of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a report claimed that he had died in a plane crash, only for that information to be quickly dismissed and replaced with a different story. Here’s what happened:

Over the weekend, rumors spread like wildfire that Assad had died in a plane crash. The confusion started when Assad was seen leaving Syria in the early hours of Sunday morning, just as fierce fighting broke out in Damascus. The city was being attacked ...