The suicide bombing that left Syria’s defense minister and the brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad dead has rattled the embattled Damascus regime and raised the prospects of increasingly deadly retaliation, members of the opposition said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Wednesday that the situation in Syria “is rapidly spinning out of control.” Panetta once again called on the Assad government to safeguard its large stockpile of chemical weapons.
“It’s obvious what is happening in Syria is a real escalation of the fighting,” the Pentagon chief said at a Wednesday news conference.
More than 17,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising against Assad’s government began last March. Opposition leaders say they fear an increasingly desperate Assad will raise the stakes in his fight against them.
“After what happened today in Damascus, we are expecting [the regime] will use the chemical weapons soon,” said Syrian activist Abu Ghazi al-Hamwi.
Al-Hamwi said the initial information from Syrian sources is that “some people in the Syrian Army in coordination with the [rebel] Free Syrian Army helped execute the bombing.”
Another Syrian activist, who asked not to be named, said, “There is opposition within the Syrian Army, those that don’t want to slaughter innocent people. The defectors are the first sign that [Assad] is losing control of the country.”
Al-Hamwi also said seven civilians in Hama were killed Wednesday by professional snipers sent by the Assad regime into the city. He said the Syrian people expect Western nations to stand by their side and warned that if they are abandoned “we will never forget.”
To avoid an escalation in the civil war, “We need the west to speed up the process to kick out al-Assad and his regime as soon as possible,” he said. He called on the United States and Europe to “support the Free Syrian Army, which is the only side which is protecting the civilians.”
According to Syrian state-run media, the suicide bomber attacked a group of high-ranking members of ministers and security chiefs who were meeting in Damascus. Syrian and Lebanese television said the slain included the defense minister, Daoud Rajha, and Assef Shawkat, the president’s brother-in-law who was the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian military.
Jim Phillips, a senior defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said the bombing has all the markings of an inside job.
Phillips said it “underscores the growing fissures in the regime and the continued erosion of its base of support.
“The fact that the opposition could link up with sympathizers inside the regime without being detected must be sending a shiver down Assad’s back,” Phillips said. “The loss of Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, is particularly devastating, as he was a key player inside the regime, while the defense minister was considered to be more of a figurehead.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
