Sting - Sting Condemns Syrian Violence After Assad Pictures Emerge

The photographs show the rocker and his partner Trudie Styler meeting Assad and his British-born wife, Asma, in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2008.

Explaining how the famous couple met the Syrian leader, a source tells Britain's Daily Mail: "Trudie and Sting were on holiday in the Middle East in 2008 when they were invited to meet President Assad and his wife Asma.

"At that time, Assad was relatively new to power and regarded as Westernised and, so, a potentially democratising influence in the Middle East."

The pictures have emerged just days after two journalists were killed in an explosion in Syria as the bloody uprising there turns increasingly violent, and a representative for Sting has now spoken out to insist the star is disgusted by the atrocities.

The spokesperson says, "Naturally Sting and Trudie abhor what's happening in Syria now and what Al-Assad is doing to his own people as well as his murderous attacks on journalists."