Syrian dictator Bashar Assad said on Wednesday that troops from the regime's depleted forces would head to the outskirts of a town liberated by rebel forces to help besieged regime soldiers, attempting to justify recent 'setbacks' in the regime's military fortunes as part of normal warfare.

Rebel forces last month captured the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, and are making steady progress towards the regime's coastal heartland of Latakia.

Assad was speaking at a regime-staged rally, held in an undisclosed location, with the event supposedly held to commemorate 'martyrs' who died fighting for the regime. As usual, the regime went all out in production of the event, with crowds hired for the occasion chanting in support of Assad, who now only makes 'public appearances' at these staged events since he faces no danger from the scrupulously vetted audience of 'extras' hired to bolster the regime's claims of enjoying widespread popularity. Although he is surrounded day and night by a phalanx of IRG guards wherever he goes, with the regime no longer trusting Syrian security personnel to protect him, Assad makes no public appearances otherwise.

Claiming that to-and-fro gains were normal in any war, Assad said that Syria's armed forces, now wholly dependent on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah and other Tehran-backed Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, would "remain resolute."

"Psychological defeat is the final defeat and we are not worried," said the embattled tyrant, although even the remaining minority of loyalist Syrians are no longer inclined to believe the regime's PR in contrast to the ever-worsening reality.

Photo: Press handout from regime media mouthpiece SANA showing regime supporters (or hired extras) hailing the dictator Bashar al-Assad at a regime-staged propaganda rally supposedly held to commemorate 'martyrs' who died fighting for Assad, staged at an undisclosed location earlier today.