DAMASCUS, Syria — Has Damascus' spring come?

They're calling it "Zero Hour" here in Damascus as the clock on the Assad regime appears to be counting down. The only question on so many lips is when, not if, the 49-year-old Baath regime and its leader of the past 11 years, Bashar al-Assad, will fall. The bomb that exploded during a secret "crisis cell" meeting of the regime's key officials on Wednesday has already wiped out the Syrian’s regime's top military and government brass, and rumors abound that the president himself has been seriously wounded — if not killed. Assad's failure to make any public address or appearance has only heightened public feeling that his once iron grip has been loosened.

"From what we're seeing and hearing on the streets it already looks as if his time is up ... but if he doesn't show his face by tomorrow then l would say — the regime has definitely crumbled," said one Damascus resident.

The sense of the Syrian regime's end has built incredible momentum in the past 72 hours. When l arrived to Damascus on Monday the onslaught on Midan, Damascus’ traditionally conservative southern district, was at its peak, with residents trapped between government tanks and Free Syrian Army guerrillas. Damascus already had a surreal, contradictory air as government forces struggled to contain the eruption of fighting in southern districts, while residents in the northern and western districts continued about their business with muted enthusiasm. "This isn't the first time we've heard of heavy fighting in Damascus ... let’s see how long it lasts," a resident in Damascus’ then unaffected areas told me.