A convoy of journalists, without regime minders, went alone to Saqba, a
poor district about 20 minutes from central Damascus, where a funeral
was due to happen of a man killed by the Assad regime's forces.



Once
we left the centre, we saw no regime security men. Then, on the edge of
Saqba, we came upon several dozen armed and masked fighters from the
Free Syria Army.



Local people said that the intelligence and
police conducted operations in the area, sometimes a couple of times a
week, sometimes every night.



It's clear that the regime forces,
when they deploy enough men, can enter the rebellious suburbs of
Damascus. But they do not appear to have the force to hold them.



This
does not mean that the president is about to fall. He has his own
hard-core support, and he also has well-armed forces, in and out of
uniform. It looks as if Syria faces more blood and more bitterness.