Following last week's assassination of several key figures, there are signs that the Assad regime is beginning to feel seriously threatened. It has taken the unprecedented step of warning the public that two of its most central institutions – the Republican Guard and the state TV – should be viewed with caution.

On Thursday, it warned that men in the uniform of Republican Guards are not necessarily who they seem to be:

"Armed men in Tadamon, Midan, Qaa and Nahr Aisha [neighbourhoods of Damascus] are wearing military uniforms with the insignia of the Republican Guard. This confirms they are planning to commit crimes and attack people, exploiting the trust of citizens in our courageous armed forces."

Yesterday, it was the turn of the regime's media to be designated as potentially untrustworthy:

"[An] information ministry source on Sunday warned that western intelligence are planning in cooperation with some Arab parties to hijack the frequencies of Syrian satellite channels for some time to broadcast false news on alleged coup d'etat or certain military defections or the fall of certain cities and the like.

"The ministry source added that the frequencies of Syrian channels are to be hijacked through broadcast control stations in neighbouring countries, noting that false news might be broadcast by Syrian presenters and journalists who work for Arab and western channels or who might be or have been abducted and pressured to present such false news.

"The ministry stressed that any news that might be broadcast with regard to such alleged information are completely baseless and should be regarded by the citizens as being part of the misleading and fabrication campaign launched against Syria."

The report is careful to suggest that any interference with broadcasts would be the result of a foreign plot rather than, say, Syrians seizing control of TV stations inside the country. Even so, it is an extraordinary admission of cracks in the regime's once-unquestionable control.

The official news agency's report adds, of course, that its information ministry source "stressed normal life in Damascus, adding that the authorities, in cooperation with locals, are chasing vanquished terrorists in certain streets".

More and more, though, the regime is also having to formally denystories that only a few months ago it could have ignored as preposterous – two of the latest being the claim that President Assad is "ready" to step down and that his wife has fled to Russia.

Such stories may well be untrue but the official denials, far from quashing such speculation, push it further into the realms of normal public discourse.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 23 July 2012.