Hafez Facebook post

The 11-year-old son of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has allegedly written a Facebook post challenging the United States to launch an attack on Syria.

The post, which is impossible to independently verify, was said to have been made by Hafez al-Assad. Likes and comments attributed to the families of senior members of Assad's circle were posted beneath it.

In the post, Hafez claims that America may have the best army in the world but as far as soldiers are concerned, "no one has soldiers like the ones we do in Syria".

"I just want them to attack sooo much, because I want them to make this huge mistake of beginning something that they don't know the end of it.

"I can say that when America attacks it's gonna attack every Syrian, [those for an assault], [those] against, terrorists, the army," he added.

Hitting back at comments that the US would destroy the Syrian army, Hafez proudly replies: "They will never destroy these remnants and little bits of resistance, it's who we are, we were born to fight and resist, we will fight them everywhere until they get out ."

His pro-war claims - "victory is ours in the end, no matter how much time it takes" - were liked by Ali and Sally, two children of deputy vice-president Mohammed Khierbek and by three children of a former deputy defence minister, Assef Shawkat, who was killed in July 2012.

According to a Syrian journalist from Damascus cited by a New York Times blog, the accounts of the slaughtered minister's children are authentic.

In his short biography, Hafez wrote that he was a graduate of a Montessori school in Damascus, which seems to fit a detail revealed by his mother Asma in an interview with Vogue magazine.

He also boasted the he was a graduate of Oxford University and a player for a Barcelona football team, but that was likely to be an 11-year-old's megalomania.

The picture used by the account appears to be a professional photograph used by the Assad family. However, IBTimes UK has verified that the account has since been removed.

Syrian president with wife and three children
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad with wife Asma and three children, Hafez, Zein, and Karim