Syria Crisis: Ikhbariya TV Channel hit by Gunmen

The “war in Syria” as President Assad termed it on Tuesday took another turn as Gunmen stormed into a Syria TV channel headquarters on Wednesday.

The assaliants bomed buildings, shot down three employees as the rebels prove they are npt relenting in their attacks against the Assad led administration. The media in Syria are monitored and tightly regulated by the Ministry of Information and although Ikhbariya is privately owned, opponents of Assad say it is a government mouthpiece.

“I heard a small explosion then a huge explosion and gunmen ran in. They ransacked the offices and entirely destroyed the newsroom,” an employee who works at the offices in the town of Drousha told state media at the scene.

Despite the attacks, the TV channel however resumed broadcasting shortly after the attack, they displayed pools of blood around the premesis and the bullet holes in its two-storey concrete building. The attacks had left one of the buildings had been almost completely destroyed.

President Bashar al-Assad said late on Tuesday that his country was “at war”. His administration is “holding fairly firm” and digging in for a long struggle against rebel forces who are getting stronger.

“We live in a real state of war from all angles,” Assad told a cabinet he appointed on Tuesday, in a speech broadcast on state television. “When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war.”

It is beyond question now how close the rebels are to the capital. The early morning attacks on the Ikhbariya television’s offices, located 20 km (15 miles) south of the capital, as well as overnight fighting on the outskirts of Damascus showed 16 months of violence now rapidly encroaching on the capital.

There has been some military defections, especially from the lower but the President’s inner circle remains bonded together and the war is still likely to be a drawn-out struggle, Intelligence officials said, in an assessment dimming any U.S. hopes that Assad will fall soon of his own accord.

“Our overall assessment … would be that we are still seeing the military regime forces fairly cohesive, they’ve learned some lessons over the last year and a half about how to deal with this kind of insurgency,” an official said.

The insurgency is also getting stronger, he said. “Both sides seem to be girding for a long struggle. Our sense is that the regime still believes it can ultimately prevail or at least appears determined to try to prevail and the opposition at the same time seems to be preparing for a long fight.”