Assad regime now in ‘final phase’

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government is in its final stages and will be unable to survive as more parts of the country slip from his control, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) said.
“Armed rebels are co-ordinating better, which is making their fight against Assad more effective,” Gerhard Schindler told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung newspaper, in an interview made public yesterday.
“Assad’s regime will not survive.”
Fighting around Damasus has intensified over the past week, and Western officials have begun speaking about faster change on the ground in the conflict.
“Evidence is mounting that the regime in Damascus is now in its final phase,” Schindler said.
Although neither Assad nor the fighters had been able to take the upper hand, Assad was losing control of more and more parts of the country, and was focusing his energy on defending Damascus, key military sites and airports, Schindler added.
Schindler’s comments echoed remarks made yesterday by US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who was withdrawn last year.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops battled fighters near Damascus yesterday and launched air strikes on opposition strongholds in the south of the capital and on its northeastern outskirts.
The Observatory gave an initial toll of 49 people killed nationwide, including 16 civilians and 16 rebels killed in Damascus province alone.
To the northeast of the capital, seven civilians including a child were killed in heavy army shelling on the town of Misraba.
Nearby, warplanes bombarded the town of Douma and areas between Harasta and Irbin, said the watchdog.
The Observatory said that the army mounted attacks on rebel positions near the borders with Turkey and Israel.