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Syrian army defectors and rebel commanders based in Turkey said on Thursday a bomb that killed three top military officials in Damascus would hasten the end of President Bashar al Assad's rule, predicting more defections and divisive internal feuding.

Brigadier Fayez Amr, a senior member of defectors' group, the Joint Leadership of the Higher Council, said the attack was a turning point in the 16-month-old uprising.

Intense clashes were reported late on Wednesday in centre of the capital and the army was shelling its own capital from the surrounding mountains as night fell.

"The regime might now resort to more lethal weapons in retaliation but the biggest loser will ultimately be the regime. The strength of the regime no longer matters when it faces the will of a people against soldiers who have lost their will to fight and when a soldier knows he is fighting his own people. Victory is closer than ever now," Amr told Reuters.

Syria's defence minister and Assad's brother-in-law were killed in the attack, the biggest blow to Assad's high command.

A security source said the bomber who struck inside the security headquarters was a bodyguard entrusted with protecting the closest members of Assad's circle. State television said it was a suicide bomber. Anti-Assad groups claimed responsibility.

Ahmad Zaidan, spokesman for the Higher Council of the Revolution's Leadership, an opposition group, said the blast was a major blow to the morale of the army, 50,000 of whom - out of 280,000 - the opposition estimates have deserted.

"It's the beginning of the breaking of the chain, the regime has lost control now and those around Bashar al Assad whom he relied on are gone. The regime's foundations have been shaken. It's just Bashar now who's left," said Zaidan.

Dozens of soldiers had defected in Idlib province in the last few hours, he said.

Abdullah al-Shami, a rebel commander, who has led rebel attacks in Aleppo, the country's largest northern city said: "This this is a qualitative shift that will further demoralise any one who supports the regime."

"I expect a speedy collapse of the regime ... and it means we will not be in need of outside intervention with the regime beginning to crumble much faster than we envisaged," he said.

Young Syrians training in a camp along the border inside Syrian territory, fired shots in the air and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and embraced each other in celebration.

However, Muhaiman al-Taiee, a senior officer in the Front for Syrian Revolutionaries, an umbrella group that coordinates major rebel brigades, said organisational weakness among armed opposition groups meant Assad could still win more time.

"Unfortunately if we had been better organised these momentous events would have brought an immediate collapse of Assad's rule. But ... we still have some way to go," he said.