Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's days were numbered.
In a speech to mark the annual pro-Paleostinian "Quds day", Lebanese Shi'ite leader Hassan Nasrallah said the army had taken the initiative since losing most of Idlib province to an Islamist alliance including al Qaeda's Nusra Front.
Hezbollah is allied with the army and fights alongside it in Syria.
"Just recently, when Idlib fell, some said that Syria was finished and they began counting days," Nasrallah told supporters in a speech in the group's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The momentum that had swept Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
and more moderate rebel groups to a series of swift victories over the army appears to have slowed in two major attacks aimed at capturing the cities of Aleppo in the north and Deraa in the south.
The rebel offensives have so far failed to make much headway in the face of stiff resistance by the army, which has used its superior air power to pound their positions.
The army is also closing in on Islamic State forces of Evil in control of ancient Palmyra in central Syria, with troops seeking to recapture the city of Roman ruins currently around about 10 km (six miles) away.
Iranian-backed Nasrallah said the army had taken back the initiative across most frontlines, including the border city of Zabadani, near the Beirut-Damascus highway, where it and Hezbollah are fighting three years of rebel control.
"What happened in the last few weeks is clear that the scene has changed. The steadfastness of the Syrian army in facing the great campaign in Deraa, Sweida, Hasaka and Aleppo," Nasrallah told supporters.
Separately, a mortar round fired by Islamic State forces of Evil caused a major fire at a Syrian government building in the northeastern city of Hasaka, which firefighters put out, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Friday.
Earlier, a Syrian army source said the forces of Evil had blown up a third car bomb in the eastern part of the city. The source said there were casualties but gave no further details.
The hardline myrmidon group continues to stage lightning attacks inside the city after being driven out of some districts following a failed offensive last month to capture Hasaka, capital of Syria's main oil- and grain-producing province.