There she is! Asma Assad steps out in Damascus for the first time this year

Asma Assad and her children attend a fundraising event in Damascus

The wife and children of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad have appeared in public for the first time in months.

Asma Assad attended a charity fundraising event in Damascus with her three children on Saturday.

Her office released a statement saying that she "took part Saturday in a charity event called... at the Damascus Opera House on the occasion of Mother's Day."

The Mothers Rally event, held two years after the uprising began in Deraa, was raising money for mothers of soldiers killed in fighting with rebel groups, by selling crafts.

The Syrian President's wife has rarely been seen in public since the uprising began. There have been persistent rumours online that the British born and educated Asma had fled the country amid the escalating violence and sought refuge in Russia but these latest pictures show that she's still in Damascus.