BEIRUT — Syria’s embattled president marked Easter with a tour Sunday of an ancient Christian village recently recaptured by his forces, an important symbolic prize for his government ahead of coming presidential elections he appears poised to contest.
President Bashar Assad’s visit to Maaloula, about 40 miles northeast of Damascus, serves as a propaganda victory for his government in its quest to be seen as protector of religious minorities as its civil war grinds on.
Meanwhile, questions continue to swirl about allegations of recent poison gas attacks in the country, with French officials saying Sunday there were indications that Assad’s forces were behind them.
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Rebels, including fighters from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, seized Maaloula several times late last year, most recently in December. Government troops swept through the village last week, sending rebel fighters fleeing to nearby hills.
Despite damage to holy sites in the village, Assad told Syrian state television: ‘‘Maaloula will remain steadfast in the face of barbarism of all those who are targeting the homeland.’’
‘‘Nobody, regardless of the extent of their terror, can erase our cultural and human history,’’ the state news agency quoted Assad as saying as he surveyed damage to the Mar Takla Greek Orthodox monastery in the village.
Assad promised to defend Christians — who make up about 10 percent of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million — and protect churches that he said were part of the country’s cultural heritage. Syria’s civil war has seen Islamic extremists and radical foreign fighters join the fight and target Christians and their houses of worship.
Many of Syria’s patchwork of minority Christian and Muslim faiths support Assad or have remained neutral, fearing for their fate should hard-line rebel groups seize power.
Assad’s visit, while highlighting the recent gains his forces have made around the capital and along the Lebanese border, also took on the air of a campaign-style event. On Monday, Syria’s Parliament will open registration for presidential candidates in its upcoming election, scheduled to be held this summer.
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Assad has not publicly said he will run, but is widely expected to win another seven-year term. That is despite the war entering its fourth year, scattering a third of the population and killing more than 150,000 people, according to activists.
Syria’s conflict started in March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against Assad’s rule. It gradually turned into a civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.
The war has seen chemical weapons attacks, including one near the capital, Damascus, that killed hundreds of people. The United States and its allies blamed the Syrian government for that attack, which crossed a ‘‘red line’’ that President Obama had said would bring harsh consequences.
The attack nearly sparked Western airstrikes before a negotiated diplomatic settlement saw Assad’s government agree to give up its chemical weapons. Damascus denied the charges and accused rebels of staging the attack.
On April 11, Assad’s government and rebels reported a poison gas attack in Kfar Zeita, an opposition-held village in Hama province some 125 miles north of Damascus. Both sides blamed each other for the attack, though details remain murky and Western governments and the United Nations have yet to confirm what happened.
Sunday, President Francois Hollande of France told Europe 1 radio station that he has ‘‘several elements’’ suggesting recent use of chemical weapons in Syria, but no definitive proof.
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Claims of chemical weapons attacks come days ahead of an April 27 deadline for Assad’s government to have handed over Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles for destruction.