The Washington Post US daily stressed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in a stronger position than ever before to quell the armed group against his rule.
Aided by the steadfast support of his allies and the deepening disarray of his foes, al-Assad is pressing ahead with plans to be reelected to a third seven-year term this summer while sustaining intense military pressure intended to crush his opponents.
According to the US daily, the strategy is not new, but in recent months it has started to yield tangible progress in the form of slow but steady gains on several key fronts.
Most notably, the government has pushed the armed groups back or squeezed them into isolated pockets in large swathes of the territory surrounding Damascus, diminishing prospects that the opposition will soon be in a position to seriously threaten the capital or topple the regime.
"More than ever there is no hope. Not on the ground and not politically," Abu Emad said, using a pseudonym to protect his identity. "For the rebels to win, it will take a miracle."
The extent of the progress has been such that al-Assad felt confident enough this week to travel 20 miles outside Damascus, through territory held by the armed groups for much of the past two years.
In the northeastern suburb of Adra, he visited displaced people, promised them aid and pledged to uphold the fight.
But the likelihood is growing that al-Assad will be able to pacify enough of the country to sustain his hold on power and claim victory, said Jeffry White, military analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"The possibility of the regime winning in a real sense is there," he said. "It depends on a lot of factors - that the regime continues to get support from [the Lebanese militia] Hizbullah and Iran, that there's no outside intervention, and that the rebels don't get better organized or new weaponry. But unless the rebels can change the situation on the ground in some way, the regime is going to keep grinding them down."
Deepening rifts among the rebels have further enhanced the government's prospects. A revolt in January by an assortment of diverse armed groups against the al-Qaeda-inspired so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] led to widespread bloodshed across northern Syria.
The daily further noted that "the rebel landscape has since continued to fragment. Al-Qaeda's central command repudiated ISIL, triggering a rift between that group and al-Qaeda's main Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front, that has erupted in fighting in the east of the country. The mainstream Supreme Military Council, backed by the United States, has split into two feuding camps after the ouster of its commander, Gen. Salim Idriss.
Liwa al-Tawheed, the biggest armed groups' force in Aleppo, lost 500 men in those weeks, compared with 1,300 in two years of fighting government forces, according to a logistician with the brigade, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His brigade is deeply divided over the confrontation with ISIL, with some battalions in favor of fighting the extremists and others opposed, and the subject is sensitive even within his own unit.
"It has taken a heavy toll, and the regime is taking full advantage," he said of the rebel rifts. "Now we are in danger of losing Aleppo."
Meanwhile, preparations are gathering pace in Damascus for presidential elections due by July under the terms of Syria's current constitution.
