Armed and masked rebels are organizing as Assad extended his crackdown on his political opponents on Tuesday.

Armed and masked rebels are organizing as Syrian President Bashar Assad’s extends his war against the opposition and  fires on Domestic protesters Tuesday, wounding several civilians.

Assad’s biggest weapon is the lack of worldwide unity against him, with China and Russia balking at joining Western-backed sanctions while Iran supplies his regime with direct aid of weapons and soldiers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards

A media blackout, except for several reporters who have infiltrated into rebel  areas,  has allowed Assad’s forces to continue the daily slaughter of opponents at will. Soldiers and “goon squads” murdered more than a dozen more victims in Homs on Tuesday.

Ground troops are  reputedly deploying for a possible assault on the city that could make the attacks and death toll to date child’s play in comparison as the Arab Spring rebellion moves into its month.

Assad has confounded predictions as far back as months ago that his regime would fall within a matter of days or weeks, but the need to shoot live fire on demonstrators in the capital of Damascus on Tuesday may be the beginning of the end of what for all intents and purposes is a war between the military on one side and civilians and army deserters on the other.

If it becomes a do-or-die situation, Assad is likely to choose death for the opposition, no mater how high the toll, so long as he remains protected by Russia and China from further condemnation.

One other factor ini his favor is that the grass-roots opposition has lacked a national leader, in contrast to the rebellion in Libya against Muammar Qaddafi, who eventually lost power to the National Transitional  Council and was killed while trying to escape the country.

On the other hand, the lack of unified opposition  has exposed Assad loyalists to sniper fire and shootings at random. One Syrian businessman was shot to death by gunmen Tuesday in the Assad stronghold of Aleppo,  two days after guerilla fighters killed a senior state prosecutor and a judge.