By Mario Abou Zeid, Al Jazeera

The long-planned spring battle of Qalamoun - between Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces on one hand, and Syrian rebels on the other hand - started last weekend. Though the Assad regime and Hezbollah are striving for a victory to regain momentum, it will be a lengthy and costly one that will further degrade their capabilities. Furthermore, it has exposed the reality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Qalamoun; that it is operated by the Syrian regime's intelligence.

The Assad regime has placed its intelligence chief under house arrest after suspecting he was plotting a coup, in a sign that battlefield losses are setting off increasing paranoia in Damascus.

Ali Mamlouk, the head of the country's National Security Bureau, and one of the few officials still to have access to President Bashar al-Assad, was accused of holding secret talks with countries backing rebel groups and exiled members of the Syrian regime.

Afrin‬, ‎Aleppo‬ province, 10-05-2015: Residents of the majority-Kurdish town of Afrin in Aleppo province today staged a protest in solidarity with fellow Kurds in Mahabad in Iran over Iranian security forces' brutal repression of protests in Mahabad and other Kurdish towns and cities in Iran. Protesters in Afrin carried the Free Syrian flag (seen in picture), as well as Kurdish flags, chanting against the Iranian and Assad regimes.

10-05-2015: In preparation for the post-Assad scenario in Syria, Israeli sources have confirmed that the Israeli military is set to launch attacks on “jihadist organisations” operating in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.

Military affairs commentator Alon Ben-David confirmed that the Israeli army and air force are currently working on preparations for a strategy to defeat a range of jihadist organisations on the assumption that these organisations will turn their weapons on Israel after the fall of the Assad regime.

Hezbollah's al Manar TV has been tirelessly broadcasting triumphal reports of its 'victories' in the Qalamoun region of Damascus province in coordination with Assad's forces. The Tehran-backed militia's media arm hasn't, however, been reporting the less than dignified return to Lebanon of the heaped bodies of Hezbollah mercenaries, killed there while fighting for Assad and Tehran, in the backs of pick-up trucks, as shown in this photograph taken by activists in the area.

Photo from Ahmed Mansour

Latakia, 08-05-2015: Mourning is continuing among the ranks of Assad’s supporters in Latakia and anti-regime sentiments are mounting as the number of bodies of local regime troops being returned after being killed in fighting on various fronts across Syria continues to increase due to the victories by rebel forces who continue to make great progress across the country despite the massive odds against them.

Casting aside U.S. concerns about aiding extremist groups, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have converged on an aggressive new strategy to bring down Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The two countries — one a democracy, the other a conservative kingdom — have for years been at odds over how to deal with Assad, their common enemy. But mutual frustration with what they consider American indecision has brought the two together in a strategic alliance that is driving recent rebel gains in northern Syria, and has helped strengthen a new coalition of anti-Assad insurgents, Turkish officials say.