Syrian coalition groups say they don't want international military intervention (Creative Commons/Freedom House)

A top Russian official said on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar Assad may be losing control after Syrian rebel car bomb attacks, which have killed at least 16 people.

The L.A. Times reported:

"We must face the facts: The possibility exists that the [Syrian] government may progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in Moscow, according to Russian news accounts. "An opposition victory can't be excluded."

The diplomat's remarks appeared to be the first time that a high-level Kremlin functionary publicly acknowledged that Assad's days may be numbered after an almost 21-month uprising that has seen tens of thousands killed, caused vast damage and left large swaths of territory in rebel hands -- even as battles continue to rage across the country.

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According to The New York Times, Obama administration officials reported that President Assad's forces had fired at least six Soviet-designed scud missiles over the past week. The uprising against Assad's regime has killed more than 40,000 Syrians since it began 21 months ago.

“As the regime becomes more and more desperate, we see it resorting to increased lethality and more vicious weapons moving forward, and we have in recent days seen missiles deployed,” said Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, according to The New York Times.

President Obama has said that the use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line,” implying that it might lead to an American military response.

CNN reported that NATO also believes Assad's time is running out.

• "I think now it's only a question of time," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters on Thursday at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, at which he and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the deployment of two Patriot air defense batteries to Turkey's border with Syria.
• "I urge the regime to stop violence, to realize what is the actual situation, and initiate a process that leads to the accommodation of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," Rasmussen said.
• His comments came as opposition groups claimed to seize a military base near Damascus amid calls by the Local Coordination Committees to push for the fall of the capital.
• "We all know that the battle is not going to be easy, and that the regime will defend its existence by the most brutal means, as we have become accustomed to seeing," the opposition group said. "We know that the regime will spare no resources in destroying any hold it may have before its collapse, as we have witnessed in all other Syrian cities."

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Rasmussen has called Syria's use of the scud missiles as "reckless."

"The use of such indiscriminate weapons shows utter disregard for the lives of the Syrian people," he said to CNN.

Coalition groups have said they believe that the increasing recognition given to them by the U.S. will further encourage their cause. But they do not want any international military intervention.

"We have enough fighters," George Sabra of the Friends of Syria Coalition said. But he added that weapons were still needed.

Find more Neon Tommy coverage of Syria here.
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