- General Assef Shawkat was among the most feared in Assad's inner circle
- Defence minister also killed in the attack on National Security building
- 60 soldiers killed as rebels
- Syrian capital has seen four straight days of fierce fighting
- Pictures emerge of children horrifically injured by government shelling
- Two Syrian Brigadier Generals defect to Turkey
- Rebels now include al-Qaeda style Jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and local pro-democracy Sunni liberals
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General Assef Shawkat was the deputy defense minister in Syria. He was among the most feared figures in Assad's inner circle and was married to Assad's elder sister, Bushra.
Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha also was killed in Wednesday's blast at the National Security building in Damascus.The interior minister was wounded.
Killed: The brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, General Assef Shawkat (right) has been killed in a Damascus suicide bomb attack
Syrian state television says the bomber struck the National Security building during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials.
Although it was unclear who was behind the attack, the high-level assassination could signal a turning point in the 16-month conflict as the violence becomes increasingly chaotic.
The suicide bombing came as government troops reportedly inflicted heavy casualties on rebel forces in the city which has seen four straight days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels.
Pictures have recently emerged of children horifically injured by government shelling.
Casualty: A young girl who was wounded by shelling is treated at a makeshift hospital in Houla near Homs
Shrapnel wounds: A young boy and a young girl who were left with horrific injuries following government assault near the city of Homs
A young boy screams in pain as he and his brother receive treatment at the makeshift hospital in Houla near Homs
Rajha was the most senior Christian government official in Syria. Assad appointed him to the post last year. His death will resonate with Syria's minority Christian population, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population and have generally stood by the regime.
Christians say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people, and they are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim groups.
Wednesday's attack struck the National Security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials. State-run TV said some of the officials were seriously wounded.
KILL OR BE KILLED: INSIDE ASSAD'S INNER CIRCLE
Maher Al-Assad brother of President Bashar al-Assad
As fighting rages in Damascus, and the Assad family that has ruled Syria for four decades struggles for its life against a growing rebellion, a picture is emerging of a tight inner group determined to fight its way out of the crisis, even as support for the government falls away.
At its head is President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000 and who friend and opponent alike say appears increasingly detached from reality, convinced he is fighting a conspiracy against him and Syria.
Around him is a tight circle of family and clan members, and a security establishment staffed mainly by adherents of the Alawite minority to which the Assads belong, a branch of Shi'ite Islam in a country that is three quarters Sunni.
'Even those who love him feel he can no longer provide security,' said Ayman Abdel-Nour, an adviser to Assad until 2007 and now an opposition figure. 'They think he is useless and living in a cocoon.'
'He thinks of himself as God's messenger to rule Syria. He listens to the sycophants around him who tell him 'you are a gift from God'.
Assad has taken charge of a military crisis unit and takes all the daily decisions, from the deployment of army units to tasks assigned to the security services, as well as mobilisation of the Alawite Shabbiha, the feared militia accused of a series of massacres in the past two months.
In this unit, intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar is responsible for security coordination, Dawoud Rajha is minister of defence, Assef Shawkat, the president's powerful brother-in-law, is deputy chief of staff of the armed forces.
Alongside them are Ali Mamlouk, special adviser on security, Abdel-Fattah Qudsiyeh, head of military intelligence, and Mohammad Nassif Kheyrbek, a veteran operator from the era of Assad's father.
Maher al-Assad, the president's younger brother and Syria's second most powerful man, commands the main loyalist strike forces.
'Maher is directly involved in the confrontation on the ground and is in direct contact with every one of them. He has direct military responsibilities,' the Lebanese politician said.
While there has been no shake-up in the leadership, its inner circle is beginning to realise it faces a serious crisis. 'In the hierarchy of the authorities you don't see a noticeable change', he said. But 'you hear more realistic language. The prestige and standing of the regime has been scratched'.
Abdel-Nour, the former Assad adviser, paints a darker picture of the inner circle.
He stresses that there is nothing autonomous about the way government units operate, whether the shelling of opposition neighbourhoods by Maher's armoured columns or the killing of villagers by the Shabbiha militia. All units are under Bashar's command and many have family ties.
Each region has its own Shabbiha leader and many of the central cities are led by Shabbiha men related to Assad.
Rubble: A picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows the destruction in the city of Homs
On the streets: A YouTube video allegedly shows government tanks on the move in the Arbeen neighbourhood of Damascus
Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad being transported in a military vehicle in central Damascus
Damascus-based activist Omar al-Dimashki said Republican Guard troops surrounded the nearby al-Shami Hospital where some officials were taken for treatment.
The blast came on the same day the U.N. Security Council was scheduled to vote on a new resolution aimed at pressuring the Syrian regime to comply with a peace plan.
TWO SYRIAN GENERALS DEFECT
Two brigadier-generals were among some 600 Syrians who fled from Syria to Turkey overnight, a Turkish official said on Wednesday.
It brings the number of Syrian generals sheltering in Turkey to 20, including a retired general.
The official could not immediately confirm if other defected officers had also arrived in Turkey in the last 24 hours but said a number of lower-ranking soldiers usually accompanied defecting generals.
The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey rose to 43,200 after 600 more arrived overnight, he said.
But Russia remained at loggerheads with the U.S. and its European allies over any mention of sanctions and Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria.
Besides a government crackdown, rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.
Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
The state-run news agency SANA reported that Wednesday's blast was aimed at the National Security building, a headquarters for one of Syria's intelligence branches and less than 500 meters (yards) from the U.S. Embassy.
Police had cordoned off the area, and journalists were banned from approaching the site.
Earlier Wednesday, SANA said soldiers were chasing rebels in the Midan neighborhood, causing 'great losses among them.' The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said army helicopters attacked the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Barzeh.
Stumbling block: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with United Nations envoy Kofi Annan yesterday.
Russia and China continue to the Assad regime by opposing UN sanctions
The key stumbling block is the Western demand for a resolution threatening non-military sanctions and tied to Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria.
Russia is adamantly opposed to any mention of sanctions or Chapter 7. After Security Council consultations late Tuesday on a revised draft resolution pushed by Moscow, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Alexander Pankin said these remain 'red lines.'
Russia has said it will veto any Chapter 7 resolution, but council diplomats said there is still a possibility of last-minute negotiations.
A PROXY WAR BETWEEN SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN?
While facts on the ground often cannot be verified because independent media are largely excluded from Syria, the conflict is now seen by observers to have changed from an uprising in poor towns and villages to a civil war that has reached the streets of the capital.
It has also become a proxy war between Russia and Shi'ite Muslim Iran, which back Assad, one one side, and Sunni Muslim powerhouse Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, which are arming and funding the Sunni rebels on the other.
The rebels now include the Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors joined by Sunni youths, al-Qaeda style Jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and local pro-democracy Sunni liberals.
Weapons are being smuggled across the borders from Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
'Syria ... is clearly right now a battleground for proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, reflecting a centuries-old conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni powers,' said Ayham Kamel of Political Risk consultancy Eurasia.
While the rebels inside Syria are gaining ground, the Syrian political opposition in exile remains bogged down in factional divisions and is losing influence.
The government is meanwhile losing its ability to spread fear. Defections of senior officers and officials have accelerated in recent weeks although the backbone of the military remains intact due to Alawite solidarity.
'The Syrian regime is slowly and totally sinking. I don't know what the timeline will be. It is becoming difficult for the state to control the country. It is like a fire engine, they extinguish one fire and find that another fire has started in another place, said a senior Western diplomat.
'The army is overstretched, the government is under sanctions and there is erosion of power,' he added.
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