President Assad 'will not step down'

The cousin of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has said the embattled leader is "not going to step down" and believes that the killing of senior security leaders today is "the start of something very dark". Speaking to Arabian Business, Ribal al-Assad said the bombing today is "a disaster, I don't know if it's the beginning of the end but I think it's a disaster". "We're at a huge risk of civil and regional war," he said (the International Committee of the Red Cross has already said it is categorising the conflict as a civil war). "It's very scary because all sides have arms, all are committed to violence, all sides are committed to winning this conflict and it's going to lead to more bloodshed. I think now we are going to start seeing civil war I think it was just the beginning, I think the number of dead is going to rise." Ribal al-Assad heads the London-based Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria and was forced into exile by Bashar's father. "You've heard him speak, you've heard Lavrov speak, and he's not going to step down. If he wanted to step down he would have stepped down from the beginning when everybody had asked him to. If he had stepped down and joined the people... and gotten rid of the corrupt people around him, who are dragging the country down that road [of civil war,] we wouldn't have been where we are today," he told Arabian Business. "Today is a complete chaotic scenario with Islamist groups from everywhere, from al-Qaeda, to unknown groups from Iraq and other places, to the Free Syrian Army to people just defending their homes. It's chaotic," he said.