This may be disinformation designed to discredit and undermine Assad's opposition, by attributing the report to them and having it easily recognized as false.
No, I doubt it is disinformation from Syria. No dictator will ever foment rumors of his own demise. They have a way of becoming self-fulfilling. It gives hope to the oppressed.
My guess is that there is something afoot here.
And this interior minister; his dad was Mustapha? Wasn't he the guy who designed the "henchman incinerator" for Dr. Evil?
"I'm not dead, but I'm very badly burned."