Syria's president Bashar al-Assad says his country is at war. Rebels in Idlib province who are better armed, more numerous and stronger by the day agree, reports the BBC's Ian Pannell. Last July we filmed refugees fleeing government attacks on largely peaceful protests, and interviewed army defectors living in makeshift camps on the Syrian side of the Turkish border who revealed that they had been ordered to shoot at protesters. By the end of that month the opposition Free Syrian Army was formed: a weak and disparate group, with neither the men nor munitions to represent a physical threat to the government. President Assad dismissed them as a few "terrorists" funded by his foreign enemies.
But since then the Free Syrian Army has become more battle hardened. The opposition now has effective control over large swathes of contiguous land in parts of the north. Faced with having to fight fires across the country government forces seem unable to hold significant amounts of territory, and the insurgency is better equipped, experienced and motivated than ever before.
Significant quantities of weapons have begun entering Syria from Turkey. We were told that two shipments, paid for by what one commander called "friends in the Gulf", with a senior Lebanese middleman acting as a broker, had been delivered to groups affiliated with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Three months ago we were told emphatically by a local commander that the "mafia" - the Turkish underworld - had been instructed not to sell weapons. Now, a senior commander in Idlib Province said, rebels were obtaining rocket propelled grenades and other arms from those very same sources. "We think a green light has been given by the West," he said.
Even rebels with the Idlib Martyrs' Brigade, who have not been sent arms from abroad, were better armed than we had ever seen before - partly because they are now churning out their own ordnance in secret workshops: improvised explosive devices (IEDs), crude but effective pipe and nail bombs, and home-made grenades.
The fighters are upbeat, confident and assertive. While still ill disciplined and poorly equipped, they now believe they are winning. What this means is more fighting and ever more death. The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people have been killed during the uprising. It is hard not to conclude that increasing numbers will die as the violence spirals out of control. It is hard to see what pressure the international community can bring to bear to reverse this.
Last week, as bombs erupted in Damascus, Mr Assad said for the first time that Syria was now in "a real state of war". On that point, at least, both the rebels and the Syrian president agree.