It is hard to find a sitting ruler with more blood on his hands than Syria's Bashar Assad. The war, sparked largely by his heavy-handed response to protests in 2011, has killed over 200,000 people and displaced half the population of 24m. In the 15 months to March this year, 3424 civilians were killed by the regime's bombs in Aleppo alone, according to an independent report this week. But now there are signs that his regime may be faltering. A year-long equilibrium in which the regime and its backers (Iran, its Lebanese client, Hizbullah, and Russia) had the upper hand has come to an end. Last month Mr Assad lost Idleb and Jisr al-Shughour, two key towns in the north-west, to rebel fighters. On May 4th a suicide-bomber made it into central Damascus, the heavily guarded capital. Latakia, the port city close to the Assads' ancestral home, is now within the range of rebel mortars.
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