Syria's Assad to be sworn in, set out plans for new term
 

* Assad to be sworn in for new seven-year term * Assad seen confident after battlefield gains BEIRUT, July 16 (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad will be sworn in and set out his plans for a new seven-year term on Wednesday, state media reported, after his victory in an election that affirmed his grip on power more than three years into Syria's civil war. Dismissed as a sham by Assad's opponents, the vote was held in June in areas of central and **rthern Syria that remain under state control. Large areas of Syria have fallen to an insurgency dominated by Islamists, including a powerful al Qaeda offshoot k**wn as the Islamic State that has also seized swathes of Iraq. Assad, supported by Russia and Iran, has defied calls by Western states for him to step aside during the conflict that started in 2011 with protests against his rule before descending into a war that has killed at least 170,000 people.

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