Assad regime on brink of collapse due to army supply crisis, says Syrian defector

London, July 28 (ANI): A Syrian general who has defected to the opposition in the country, believes President Bashar al-Assad's army is on the brink of a collapse, because it lacks fuel and food, and is facing problems re-supplying its soldiers.

General Mohammad Al-Zobi defected two months ago along with his airforce colleague General Saed Shawamra, from the city of Idlib and reached the border with Turkey.

"The benzine is nearly finished. They are running out of rockets. There is scarcely any bread or water for the soldiers," The Guardian quoted Al-Zobi, as saying.

Zobi believes that the embattled Syrian regime can last "one or two months at most".

"After that Assad will leave Syria. He'll go to Russia or maybe Iran," the paper quoted Zobi, as saying.

Zobi and Shawamra are among around 100 senior military commanders who have joined the Syrian rebels, after Assad's troops launched a brutal war against his own population.

General Robert Mood, the former head of the UN monitoring mission in Syria, also reiterated the same notion.

"In my opinion it is only a matter of time before a regime that is using such heavy military power and disproportional violence against the civilian population is going to fall," he said.

Mood however suggested that it may take more than a few months to topple Assad's regime.

"In the short term it may very well be possible for him to [hold on], because the military capabilities of the Syrian army are much, much stronger than those of the opposition," he said.

"The minute you see larger military formations leaving the ranks of the government to join the opposition, then that is when it starts accelerating ... This could last for months or even years," he added. (ANI)