I’m not sure why one successful suicide bomber which had a devastating effect signifies that the regime is “collapsing”, although I can understand why the opposition and the US might want to suggest that it does.
An interesting fact is that there has been a suggestion that the West, in other words the US, might intervene if Assad’s regime collapses. Because although the US/West has been doing it’s utmost to support the opposition (whilst simultaneously demanding an end to the conflict) it apparently trusts the opposition even less than Assad’s regime.
Syria: West may be forced to seize Bashar al-Assad’s toxic gas stockpile
International troops could be forced to intervene in Syria if the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime were to leave stockpiles of his chemical weapons vulnerable to terrorists
Like Israel, Syria has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, nor is it a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which verifies stockpiles of these weapons. Outside experts say that Syria’s chemical weapons programme dates back to the 1970s and ranks among the most advanced in the Middle East.
The rationale for his arsenal is to counterbalance a nuclear-armed Israel on Syria’s western flank and a NATO-allied Turkey on the northern frontier. Experts believe Mr Assad is highly unlikely to use these munitions against his domestic opponents.
America has identified “at least a dozen or so sites that have some very serious chemical weapon caches,” said Mike Rogers, a Republican Congressman who chairs the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. He told CNN that the attendant risk “keeps me up at night”. [/i]