An explosion of television that Syria is called a suicide bomb killed at least three advisers of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday, including the defense minister and powerful brother-Assad.
The explosion in Damascus after three days of fighting in the capital, was hit in the military structure that has led the harsh repression of the revolt of 17 months of age against the Assad regime.
The killings were the first of these senior members of the elite after the riots began and could be a turning point in the conflict, analysts said. The nature and purpose of strengthening the attack of the opposition claims that his forces were marshaled his strength to hit the dense centers of state power.
President Assad made no public statement about the attack and his fate was not immediately clear.
The attack appears to increase tensions between government troops and opposition to violent confrontations registered in various districts of Damascus. There was also a wave of defections in the government reported.
According to state television, the dead including the defense minister, Daoud Rajha, Asef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law, who was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the army of Syria, Hassan and Turkmen, a former Defense and Military Advisor to the Vice President Farouk SHARAA.
However, the television report rejected accusations of Arab satellite channels that the Interior Minister, Mohammad Shaar, was also killed, and said he was wounded in a stable condition.
Rajha General has been appointed defense minister in August. A Christian, was one of the leading figures of the minority government of Assad used to put a face of pluralism in the armed forces and security Alaouite sect dominated by the President.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad activists, said that all members of the Crisis Group created by President Assad, to try to quell the rebellion have been or are killed or injured .
State television said the three dead and more injured the Interior Minister, the other was only wounded Hisham Ikhtiar, head of security in general.
. The government has moved quickly to project an image control, the appointment of General Jassem Al-Fahed Freijo, Chief of Staff and a man, once assigned to submit conflicting Idlib province in the north, as the new defense minister.
In a statement read by the general Freijo state television, said the army would not be deterred by "cut off any hand that harms the security of the homeland and citizens."
At the Pentagon on the morning of Wednesday, Defense Secretary E. Leon Panetta said the situation in Syria "are losing control" and warned the Assad government to protect their large stockpiles of chemical weapons. "It's obvious what is happening in Syria is a real escalation of the fight," he told a joint press conference with British Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond.
The attack occurred in the diplomatic maneuvers to seek a ceasefire has remained stagnant for the differences between opponents of Syria and its international partners, mainly from Russia, before a vote of the Security Council United Nations program after the possibility of extending the mission of 300 observers from the United Nations.
The work of unarmed observers have been suspended due to violence, and are essentially trapped in their hotel rooms since last month.
In Moscow, the Deputy Foreign Minister, Gennady Gatilov, offering the first official comment on the bombings in Russia, said through his Twitter account that the attack had been the consensus among members of the Security Council even more out of reach.
"A dangerous logic: Although discussions on the resolution of the crisis are held in Syria's UN Security Council, the militants to intensify terrorist attacks, frustrating all attempts," he wrote.
The special envoy of Kofi Annan of the United Nations on behalf of Syria and the Arab League, asked the Security Council to delay the vote until Thursday, and diplomats said they were considering the request.
With tensions already high in Damascus after three days of clashes between the Syrian army and the rebels near the city center, SANA, the official news agency, described the attack as a "suicide attack" , without explanation of how this type of attack could have been done in a heavily protected position. His opponents held a great victory.
"The Syrian regime has begun to collapse," said the activist who heads the Syrian Observatory, which is known under the name of Rami Abdul-Rahman, for reasons of personal safety. "He was not fighting for three days in Damascus, not only was a shootout, and now someone is killed or injured at all these people are important."
Rumors swirled around Damascus that the bomber was a bodyguard of a minister or a senior Baath Party of President Assad, and there have been reports of a second bomb on the street who had broken the windows close . CNN quoted the deputy head of the examination of Syria, Colonel Malek Al-Kurd said that the explosion was caused by a remote controlled bomb, but offered no explanation of how this type of attack could have been done, and there was no immediate confirmation of this claim elsewhere.
The attack occurred despite the massive security presence in conflict areas to isolate the capital.
The victims of the core team of trying to impose a security solution for the revolt in Syria, and at the same time, the climate of suspicion, it was clear that Mr. Assad may find his replacement.
"If a bodyguard were sacrificed, and then there was a serious breach of internal security," said Elias Hanna, a former military officer and expert on Lebanese Syrian military analyst.
"Who will replace these people," said Hanna. "They are irreplaceable at this stage, it is difficult to find loyal people, now that the doubt is planted everywhere. Anyone can get Asef Shawkat Assad can reach."
"Everyone, even those near the inner circle, will now be under suspicion," he said.
The government acted quickly to project an image control, the appointment of Jassem Al-Fahed Freijo, Chief of Staff and a man, once assigned to submit conflicting Idlib province in the north, as the new Minister defense.
A statement from the army, quoted by state television said in part: "This terrorist act will only increase our persistence in this country to eliminate terrorists, criminals and thugs to protect the dignity and sovereignty of Syria."
The Information Minister Al-Omran Zoubir, was also in a talk show to reject requests to call the beginning of the end.
"The morale of our people is very high and our armed forces are at their highest level," he said.
The activists have succeeded in Damascus, said the city seemed deserted, apart from the security cordon around the green spear, well-to-do neighborhood where the explosion occurred on the same street of the ambassador's residence U.S., which has been vacant for months. The area is dotted with embassies and government offices.
"All the stores and shops are closed," said an activist in Damascus, came through Skype. "Some people are scared and some are happy, you can hear people firing shots at many places."
The explosion wounded were evacuated to hospital in al-Shami, an elite medical center used for the treatment of the Assad family, ministers and other senior officials. Security forces threw a cordon around the structure.
In the confusion after the attack, and in the absence of an official report of authority, there are conflicting reports about who was shot and survived.
The activists and the media reports spoke of casualties among the most senior figures in Assad's inner circle of government, a close group, including deputy chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Mohammad Sha'ar, Minister of the Interior and Ikthtiar Hisham, the head of national security.
Other team members include Ali Mamlouk January, the chief of intelligence General Abdel-Fattah Qudsiyeh, head of military intelligence, and Mohammad Nassif Kheyrbek, senior security advisor who was near his predecessor as President Assad, his late father, Hafez.
Since the uprising began in March 2011, Syria was administered by a growing circle of military and security officials close to President.
The killings represent as much psychological as physical time, encouraging the opposition, analysts say, and challenging Assad to show quickly that his forces could still face the rebels.
"They can demonstrate the ability to end this challenge and prove that they are on the way to survival?" Said an analyst with long experience in Damascus, who spoke in return for anonymity because they still keep working . "The opposition can not defeat the military regime, but we defeated through psychology."
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