U.S. Says Assad 'Disconnected from Reality' or 'Crazy'

The United States said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was either disconnected from reality or "crazy" after he argued he was not responsible for killing thousands of protesters.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner reiterated the U.S. view that Assad has lost legitimacy and should step down after the Syrian leader said in a rare interview that "only a crazy person" would kill his own people.

"It either says that he's completely lost any power that he had within Syria, that he's simply a tool or that he's completely disconnected with reality," Toner told reporters.

"It's either disconnection, disregard or, as he said, crazy. I don't know," Toner said.

"What we insist is that he has lost all credibility in the eyes of his people and needs to step down," he said.

Toner challenged the Syrian strongman to allow in international monitors to verify his assertions. The Arab League, which has suspended Syria, has been pushing to send in observers.

"Just taking at face value his denial that there's anything going on there," Toner said, "why not let international monitors, human rights monitors -- which is what the Arab League is proposing -- into Syria as well as international media and allow them to report transparently on what's happening there?"

Toner said there was "a clear campaign against peaceful protesters" and "accountability with that ultimately rests on Assad and his cronies."

White House spokesman Jay Carney earlier said that Assad's views were "not credible."

Assad said in an interview with ABC News that no government in the world would kill its people "unless it's led by a crazy person" and said he did not "own" the security forces carrying out the violence.

Assad said Syria's security forces belonged to "the government" and not him personally.

"I don't own them. I'm president. I don't own the country. So they are not my forces," he said.

On Tuesday, Toner sharply criticized Assad over the interview.

"I find it ludicrous that he is attempting to hide behind some sort of shell game but also some sort of claim that he doesn't exercise authority in his own country," Toner told reporters.

"There's just no indication that he's doing anything other than cracking down in the most brutal fashion on a peaceful opposition movement," he said.

But the Syrian foreign ministry hit back, saying Damascus was astonished by Toner’s comments which it said "distorted" the views expressed by Assad in the interview.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said: "We regret and express our astonishment at the remarks by U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, who mocked the comments made by President Assad by distorting them."

He told a news conference that Assad had not been seeking to shirk his responsibilities as head of state by telling ABC News that Syrian security forces did not belong to him personally.

Activists say that more than 100 people have been killed in Syria since Saturday, and the United Nations estimates that at least 4,000 have died since mid-March when anti-regime protests first erupted.