Syria Live Coverage: Regime Warplanes Strike in Damascus for 1st Time

2104 GMT: A micro-blogger has collected a series of videos from the FSA offensive against Halfaya, north of Hama city (map). The city is under heavy rebel attack, as the Free Syrian Army and other units are stretching the front lines to the south. After weeks of ambushes, IED attacks, and generally picking at Assad's supply lines, it appears that the insurgents have moved into Hama province with a vengeance. If this kind of momentum can be sustained over the next few days, it could signal a further Assad military collapse, but this one just kilometers from one of the most important cities in Syria:

#Syria #Hama Rebels destroyed officers club & surround National Hospital in city of #Helfaia which is under occupation youtube.com/watch?v=dEMBOn…

— Mark (@markito0171) December 17, 2012

#Syria #Hama Rebels in #Helfaia seized T-72 tankyoutube.com/watch?v=3dWzKw… wikimapia.org/#lat=35.259858…

— Mark (@markito0171) December 17, 2012

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Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Claim Another Victory Near Aleppo

See also Syria Video Feature: Planning For the Endgame? --- Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English's "Inside Syria"
Syria Feature: A Requiem for Aleppo
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: "The Only Terrorism is That of Assad"

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2015 GMT: Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa has admitted in an interview that the regime will not be able to defeat the insurgency and restore its authority --- he said, "“The opposition forces combined cannot decide the battle militarily," but continued, "Meanwhile what the security forces and the army units are doing will not reach a conclusive end.”

A pessimistic al-Sharaa said, “With every passing day, the military and political solutions get further away. The way events are heading will lead to an uncomfortable place where things will definitely go from bad to worse.”

Al-Sharaa pointed to a "historical settlement...stopping all shapes of violence, and [with] the creation of a national unity government with wide powers":

The opposition with its different factions, civilian, armed, or ones with external ties, cannot claim to be the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian People, just as the current rule with its ideological army and its confrontation parties lead by the Baath, cannot achieve change without new partners.

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