If the blood-drenched regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been under international diplomatic fire, it has also been under real fire — a fact struck home by the news that Syrian’s Defense Minister and also Assad’s brother in law have been killed in a bomb blast. The news underscores the regime’s fragile status and portends an even shakier future:
Syria’s defence minister and his deputy, President Assad’s brother-in-law, have died in a suicide bombing at security headquarters in Damascus, state TV says.
Daoud Rajiha and Assef Shawkat were attending a meeting of senior officials at the time.
The national security chief and interior minister are said to be critically hurt.
The attack comes amid claims of a major rebel offensive on the city..
The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and a jihadist group calling itself Lord of the Martyrs Brigade both said they were behind the bombing.
The BBC report also notes that the two were familiar faces in Syria, since they appeared on TV often.’
A sidebar by BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus notes:
This attack could mark an important symbolic turning point in the struggle to overthrow the Assad regime. The fact that a bomber was able to carry out such an attack against a high security target speaks volumes about the government’s ability to protect its own members and raises questions about the broader capacities of Syria’s “security state”.
As the level of senior defections from the Syrian military continues many analysts believe that it is not now a question of “if” the Syrian regime collapses from within, but “when”.
While the military with its artillery, tanks and air power still retains the overwhelming preponderance of fire-power, there are growing indications that its actual performance on the ground is less than impressive.
It does have the smell of a regime on — thankfully — borrowed time.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.