Maher al-Assad, the brother of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and commander of the Syrian army's fourth armored division, has not fled to Sulaymaniyah, according to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Saadi Ahmed Pira, PUK spokesman, dismissed the reports as politically motivated, emphasizing that Sulaymaniyah is not geographically accessible from Syria.
"Sulaymaniyah airport has no direct flights to Damascus, and the city is not located on the sea, so it is unclear how someone from Syria could even reach Sulaymaniyah," Pira said.
Iraqi authorities also rejected the claims. These allegations follow earlier speculation that Maher al-Assad had traveled through Iraq to Iran and then to Russia.
