in addition, those same sources outlined the help assad is getting from iran. weapons and computer expertise to root out opposition. their own people. barbara starr is there tonight. and robert bair, and even though we have word of more defections from the syrian army, you re hearing that bashar al assad has a firm grip on power in syria? absolutely, anderson. i spoke with three separate senior u.s. intelligence officials. the assessment is all in agreement. assad remains in control, in charge. commanding his forces. there is no break. they believe, in the inner circle around him. you see these defections. you see some generals fleeing, but this is not his critical inner circle. they have closed ranks, they have determined to fight. they have tucked themselves into it. one of the officials says they re fighting an insurgency, and they believe right now that they will win. and sadly, anderson, the opposition remains fractured and unable to really mount an effective counterof
outlined the help assad is getting from iran. weapons and computer expertise to root out opposition. their own people. barbara starr is there tonight. and robert bair, and even though we have word of more defections from the syrian army, you re hearing that assad has a firm grip on power in syria? absolutely. i spoke with three separate senior u.s. intelligence officials. the assessment is all in agreement. assad remains in control, in charge. commanding his forces. there is no break. they believe, in the inner circle around him. you see these defections. you see some generals fleeing, but this is not his critical inner circle. they have closed ranks, they have determined to fight. they have tucked themselves into it. one of the officials says they re fighting an insurgency, and they believe right now that they will win. and sadly, anderson, the opposition remains fractured and unable to really mount an effective counteroffensive, according to the officials. so does it su
in the meantime syrians are heading to the poll today to vote in local elections, and imagine trying to do that with all that firepower. leland vitter is following this from jerusalem. reporter: what we have right now is about 15,000 syrian army defectors. this has gone from a mass civilian protest to an insurgency rebellion, kind of thing, and we are on the way certainly to a civil war. right now about 4000 people have died in the nine months since this started. that number is sure to go up, possibly by multiples. the video we re seeing is also very different coming out of the syrian cities that are under no longer protests but the street battles and automatic fire weapons you hear in the background, there is very scary stuff. the syrian army is experienced at putting down uprisings and rebellions and insurgencies in its own countries. president assad s father killed more than 20,000 syrians in the city of holmes when that city itself