Assad ridiculed for calling Mandela's life 'lesson to tyrants'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been criticized for praising former South African President Nelson Mandela while morning his death, calling his life an inspiration for freedom fighters and a lesson to tyrants.

Assad said Mandela's history of struggle has become an inspiration to all the vulnerable peoples of the world, and he hopes that oppressors and aggressors will learn the lesson that in the end it is they who are the losers, the Washington Post reports.

The anti-apartheid hero died at his Johannesburg home late on Thursday, prompting an outpouring of mourning and homage from world leaders across the political spectrum.

The Syrian presidency called the former statesman "an inspiration in the values of love and human brotherhood".