Assad 'ready for civilised exit': Russian envoy

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is ready to give up power but only in a 'civilised manner', Russia's envoy to Paris Alexander Orlov told Radio France International (RFI) in an interview.

Three of President Assad's security chiefs have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Damascus.

Assad had accepted a transition plan agreed by world powers in Geneva and named a representative for talks with the opposition. "That is to say, he is accepting to go -- but to go in a civilised manner," Orlov said.