Obama has decided to break through the Syrian stalemate by sending scouts out to find a Syrian rebel with leadership qualities who is fighting Assad in Syria. When this leader is found and approved by the president, the United States will provide him and his militia with advanced hardware ...

Bashar Assad is running a smoothly operating war machine while the rebels are running out of manpower and steam. The population is adapting to the hardships of a long-term war with increasing resilience.

The revised estimates compiled by US and French intelligence agencies on the relative strength of Syrian government and rebel forces have given Washington and Arab capitals backing the Syrian opposition pause.  The Obama administration built its policies around an estimated 70,000 rebel fighters, whereas the new figure, disclosed by debkafile’s intelligence sources, appears to be around 30,000 – one tenth of them Al Qaeda-linked jihadis. Challenging Washington, French President Frances is urging direct intervention now to save the Syrian revolt.

Turkish artillery continued to pound Syria Thursday, October 4, with the aim of carving out a 10-kilometer buffer strip inside Syria, debkafile reports. Several Syrian army bases and positions inside this strip have taken direct hits and a large number of Syrian troops were killed or wounded. Turkey hopes its artillery barrage will help Syrian rebels create a 50-km long protected corridor between Aleppo and the Turkish border. Ankara and Damascus have both imposed a blackout to keep events under control and avoid a full-blown war.

Turkey is finally getting its safe haven plan off the ground by bringing two Syrian rebel brigades under Turkish command for capturing large segments of northern Syria. The Free Syrian has meanwhile begun liquidating foreign Islamists including al Qaeda who have streamed into Syria to fight Assad.

Turkish army officers have assumed direct command of at least two Syrian rebel brigades fighting Bashar Assad’s government forces, according to debkafile’s exclusive sources. This step and its future expansion, discussed during CIA Director David Petraeus’ talks in Ankara, have sent military tensions rocketing on Israel’s northern borders with Syria and Lebanon. A high alert was declared for Israel units on the Syrian and Lebanese borders for a possible backlash after unusual military movements were detected in Syria and among Hizballah concentrations.

Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar, having concluded that the battles for the cities have made no headway toward removing Assad or breaking his army, has formed a new strategy aimed at capturing his ultimate retreat, the Allawite Mts..

The Syrian rebels’ Western and Arab sponsors have ratcheted up their military assistance by giving them tanks, 20 Russian-made T-62s from Libya, paid for by Qatar, after first providing them with their first Stinger anti-air missiles, debkafile reports. The FSA is now equipped to defend safe havens, thereby ushering in the next stage of the 18-month war for turning the tide against Bashar Assad. This development could bring the Syrian ruler closer than ever before to launching his chemical and biological weapons against his enemies.

Hillary Clinton announced in Istanbul Saturday, Aug. 11, that US and Turkish intelligence services and military were to set up a joint working team to plan for “many contingencies including the very horrible scenario of the use of chemical weapons.” debkafile: Turkey has sent a first batch of anti-air, shoulder-carried Stinger missiles to Syrian rebels in Aleppo. It is feared Bashar Assad may regard this as a game-changer in the war and hit back with chemical attacks on the rebels, Turkey, Israel and Jordan.

Syrian rebels were stretched too thin and short of arms for winning Aleppo or for using Syrian army withdrawals from the rest of the country to establish safe havens. The opted for winning Aleppo – and have mostly likely lost.

“There is still a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria, but to the region,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tokyo, Sunday, July 8. “… the opposition is getting more effective… and going on the offensive against the Syrian military.” debkafile: In desperation, the Assad regime may open up its WMD arsenals against the rebel advance and spread the flames to other parts of the region, including Israel. Hence her references to catastrophe and the region.

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debkafile, citing Western intelligence sources, reports Thursday, June 28, that the Republican Guard battalion commander charged with the Syrian president’s security has kept Bashar Assad and his family shut away in his palace in what they call “partial siege" since last week. This officer decides whether they can come or go. It is not clear to whom he defers. “"Inside the palace, Assad and his family have become fearful enough to import tasters to check all the food and drink served them,” the sources say.

Amid the worsening violence in Syria, US official sources said Saturday, June 16, that US intervention was not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ and defined its format as “Libya lite.”  Pentagon officials earlier reported a Russian contingent was on its way to Syria to guard the Russian base at Tartus. As the Syrian civil conflict mounted onto the plane of major power intervention, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood announced that the UN observer mission he heads had suspended activities and patrols.

British and German brokers were asked to assure Moscow that military intervention in Syria is not planned now, but that Alawites will never stand up to Assad move him aside unless they see the rebels adequately armed for vanquishing his army. Moscow must therefore accept this.

As Syrian ruler Bashar Assad stood before parliament in Damascus Sunday, June 3, declaring, “Not even monsters could have carried out the Houla massacre,” rebels attacked a Syrian Air Force base east of the southern town of Deraa opposite the Israeli Golan border – their first such attack in the 14-month uprising, debkafile’s military sources report. Several rebel teams firing mortars set fire to fighter aircraft and assault helicopters in their hangars at the As Suwayda air base and ripped up runways.

Two radical developments arising from the Syrian conflict are revealed by debkafile: In an astonishing about face, Turkey has abandoned its 14-month support for the Syrian revolt alongside the West and made common cause with Russia, i.e. Bashar Assad.  Further exacerbating fears of a “proxy war” involving Israel, Iran and Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah is preparing to transfer its Scud D missiles, capable of hitting any point in Israel, from Syria to Lebanon. Israel has threatened to stop their crossing by force.

Despite the deep secrecy surrounding the incident, debkafile reports exclusively that unidentified commandos this week kidnapped five top Hizballah commanders, naming them as Ali Safa, a senior officer of Hizballah’s intelligence service and nephew of Hassan Nasrallah; Hussein Hamid, Dep. Commander of Hizballah forces in South Lebanon;  Ali Zerayb, member of its Jihad Council; Hassan Arzouni, chief of intelligence in the Bint Jbeil district bordering on Israel; and Aras Shoeib, head of training in the Beqaa Valley of E. Lebanon.