Photo Gallery Fighting Assad's Regime
International appeals and embargoes have failed to deter President Bashar Assad's regime from responding with increasing violence, but demonstrators continue their efforts. This protest took place in early February in the capital of Damascus.
Rebels have made progress in some of the capital's suburbs in recent days, when smoke could be seen rising over Damascus for the first time. The fact that the fighting around Damascus is so readily apparent is dangerous for the Assad regime, because it exposes the ridiculousness of the propaganda construct that there is a foreign conspiracy.
This protest took place in the central Syrian area of Deir Baghlaba in the Homs province on Friday Jan. 27. The the decisive battles, which have already become part of a civil war, are reportedly taking place in central Syria.
Here President Bashar Assad is show visiting wounded troops at a hospital in Damascus in late January. A number of his troops have reportedly defected to fight with rebels.
Here a Syrian soldier mans a tank in Deir Balaba, near Homs, on Jan. 31. The remaining divisions of the Syrian army, which nominally consists of up to 300,000 men, are not just being worn down by the growing refusal of soldiers to shoot at their fellow Syrians, but are also becoming a threat to the regime. Entire groups of soldiers are now switching sides, taking their weapons with them.
A Syrian rebel guards an alley in the Rastan area in the Homs province on Feb. 1.
