On July 20, 1944, a group of officers of the Wehrmacht as well as other defense agencies of the Third Reich tried to overthrow the Nazi regime in Germany and assassinate Adolf Hitler. The signs of Germanys imminent defeat in the war, the horrific acts perpetrated by Hitlers regime, and the führers bizarre decisions and actions compelled a group of senior officers in the reichs highest echelons to hatch an assassination plot. A suitcase booby-trapped with explosives would be smuggled into a conference room and detonated as close to the führer as possible. Despite the blast and the casualties it inflicted, Hitler was spared, and the plot failed. Many of the co-conspirators, including the mastermind of the plan, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, were executed. The plot was the culmination of many attempts to overthrow the Nazi regime, which ultimately crumbled following a massive campaign of murder and purges. Dates in history apparently carry symbolic weight. Two days ago, on July 18, just two days before the anniversary of that same plot, an attempt that bears the same hallmarks of the Nazi episode was carried out under similar circumstances, this time against the insane regime of Bashar al-Assad. This time, however, the attack scored a great success. A bodyguard in Assad's inner circle succeeded in detonating an explosive device in the National Security Center in Damascus, where a meeting chaired by the Syrian defense minister, and attended by the crisis management team, convened. The suicide mission resulted in the deaths of Defense Minister Daoud Rajiha; his deputy, Gen. Assef Shawkat (Assads brother-in-law); Maj. Gen. Hassan Turkmani, who ran the situation room which oversaw the day-to-day handling of the uprising; and, according to some reports, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar. Other senior officials from both the civilian and military leadership were injured in the attack, and they are currently being treated at a hospital under the protection of the Republican Guard. This daring gambit, which took place in Damascus while fighting continues in the various rural towns of the country, undoubtedly signals that the noose is tightening around the regimes neck. This was a fatal blow to the heavily guarded, sensitive nerve center in downtown Damascus, a unit of the regime that swears loyalty to Assad. This blow will make it difficult for Assad and his men to continue waging the battle, for the Syrian regime is built on the loyalty of its various minority sects. Even intelligence organs spied on one another and used the most brutal, cruel methods of interrogation, imprisonment, and even murder. It seems that the regime intensifies its brutality the closer it gets to downfall. The aerial and infantry bombardment of Syrian towns and the massacres that are taking place in rural neighborhoods have forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee for the borders with Turkey and Jordan. With Fahd Jassem al-Freij named as the new defense minister, reports continue to surface indicating that soldiers went on murderous rampages while raping women and children, all as part of a campaign of punishment and deterrence. The perpetrators of these actions belong to the Shabiha as well as other armed units operating under the command of the crisis command center, the heads of which were killed two days ago. The individuals carrying out these horrific atrocities are regime loyalists who belong to minority groups in Syria. For years, they have maintained an alliance with the Alawites, and they are bitterly opposed to the imminent Sunni takeover of the country. Both the Alawites, the minority sect to which the Assad family belongs, and the other ethnicities fear that Sunnis will take revenge on them if they prevail. This explains why the minorities are fighting to the bitter end, waging a battle for their lives and their future. Iraqi Shiites are fleeing the country to avoid the wrath that will be visited upon them by the Free Syrian Army. The noose around Assads neck is tightening, just as the Syrian leader remains holed up in his palace with his family. The rebels are inflicting tremendous damage and are making significant gains. At the same time that the attack took place against Assads senior officials, a mysterious explosion rocked the 4th Armored Division. No official explanation was given as to the cause of the blast. Meanwhile, record numbers of defections are being reported in armored corps and infantry divisions. Even the hard core of the Syrian air force and its high command, which are composed primarily of elements loyal to the Assad regime, have not been immune. While the Free Army is reporting that it downed a helicopter that had bombarded a residential neighborhood, pilots and air force officers who defected from the military, among them the son of Sunni Gen. Mustafa Tlass, who once served as defense minister during the rule of Hafez al-Assad, Bashars father. Other Syrian pilots have in recent days landed their aircraft in neighboring countries out of refusal to participate in the butchery of their countrymen. Senior regime officials are being forced to combat a slew of fatwas issued by Islamic clerics who are denying the legitimacy of the Assad government. Syrian officials are also vowing revenge against the Wahabi Arab states (Saudi Arabia and its allies), which are financing and encouraging the rebellion as well as the attacks inside Syria. In recent days, Syrian officers removed the regimes cache of chemical and biological weapons from their storage places, all as a warning to their enemies, a move that harkens back to the days of Saddam Hussein. The regime is banking on its unconventional weapons arsenal, Chinese support, and the Russian veto in the U.N. Security Council to stave off sanctions and other penalties that are being considered by the Western powers. Will Bashar insist on fighting until the end like Gadhafi? Will Bashar flee on the deck of an old Soviet aircraft carrier? Will he try to reshuffle the deck by provoking a clash with Israel? Will Turkey strike with the blessing of NATO? We shall soon see.