While Syria burns, Assad's British-born wife goes on £270,000 online shopping spree

UK: Asma Assad has been dubbed the Princess Diana of the Middle East, combining beauty and style with tireless charity work. In a region blighted by dictatorships and conflicts, the First Lady of Syria, Asma al-Assad, was billed as the modern and caring face of the Arab world.

But emails obtained by WikiLeaks on Sunday show Mrs Assad, 36, spent £270,000 buying furniture from an exclusive London store for one of her presidential palaces last March - as Syria was descending into a bloody civil war. British-born Mrs Assad sent her order - which included five chandeliers costing £8,800 - to upmarket furniture store DN Designs in the King's Road, Chelsea, West London.

Among the 130 items were 11 ottomans costing over £20,000, a dining room table priced at almost £10,000 and a rug worth just under £11,000

The emails, seen exclusively by The Mail on Sunday, emerged as more than 200 people were believed to have been massacred by government forces in the village of Tremseh last Thursday.

It is estimated that more than 16,000 have been killed in Syria since the uprising began last March, including women and children caught in the crossfire between government troops and rebels.

But as innocent civilians were being killed, the emails show that Mrs Assad did not drop plans to refurbish the summer palace, where she and her husband go to escape the scorching desert heat.

Mrs Assad - who was once described by Vogue magazine as a 'rose in the desert' - took personal charge of furnishing the palace in the coastal town of Latakia, 200 miles north of the capital Damascus. The full scale of the palace, which offers breathtaking views of the Mediterranean, is unknown, but based on the order Mrs Assad placed, it has a grand entrance hall on the ground floor with an adjoining reception room.

DAILY MAIL