Half truths and repression: the tools of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime There is much that is normal in Damascus, but the normal seems deliberately designed to keep people in a state of nervous confusion as to what is really happening. The Midan bomber struck as worshippers came out of Friday prayers at the Zain al-Abideen Mosque. Reports described body parts and blood stains, and nine people, including five riot police, three civilians and one regular lieutenant were said to have been killed. That there was an explosion is beyond doubt - it was captured on Syrian state television, whose cameras, by coincidence apparently, happened to be on the scene at the time. "I hardly had time to jump," the resident said. I looked round and there was a cloud of dust. But there was no black smoke, as if it had been a real blast, and no flame or flash. Also unexplained, there was by his and other accounts an immediate and sustained burst of gunfire, though this and its victims were not mentioned in official reports. The mosque would also seem an odd choice for a rebel attack, as it has been a centre of anti-regime protest. It is not impossible, as even activists admit, that it was chosen precisely because of the presence of riot police, and that the timing was careless. After overwhelming force defeated strongholds such as Homs in the centre and north of the country, rebels have turned more to guerrilla warfare. But this only adds to the sense of uncertainty on which the authorities feed. Across Midan, there is a contrast between the rebellion on clear display and what people are prepared to say. The graffiti says "Assad out" and "Homs the brave." But Mohammed al-Halabi, a local barber, cautiously says the opposition is "exaggerated by Al-Jazeera." The regime does not need to have an overt presence to enforce such loyalty, as Colonel Gaddafi did. At night, according to another shop-keeper, the army come with threats, shooting out one man's air conditioning, firing into the threshold of another shop. But nor need it be too concealed. An officer with the intelligence services, who found it necessary on Saturday night to check The Daily Telegraph's paperwork, was happy to escort me to an office outside which 30 or 40 men were lined up in close order with their hands on their heads. Two middle-aged men, singled out for special treatment, were in blindfolds and facing a separate wall. A young man in casual clothes was slapping one of the two men casually round the head. As the bustle of the city shows, it will take more than a few protests to force the Assads out. But the sense of unease that bombs create is the reason for their strength, not their weakness. "The army will come and get you," the man whose neighbour had his air conditioning shot out said. They may be listening already.