A Scotland-based Syrian activist has spoken of his fears for his family as the crisis in the country heightened.

Yassin, who did not use his real name in the Scotland Tonight interview for fear of reprisals, said that the Syrian rebels want the killing to stop.

He spoke on the latest in the Middle Eastern nation after three of President Bashr al-Assad’s closest allies were killed in an apparent suicide bombing in Damascas.

During the programme, Yassin highlighted the continued support of the Assad regime by both Russia and China as being unacceptable to the rebels.

He said he did not feel western military intervention was needed, but felt that nations could put more pressure on Russia and China to change tact.

Sunday Herald foreign editor David Pratt told Scotland Tonight that he thought the blow to Assad’s regime had been a "pivotal few days" in the crisis, but it was not the "definitive moment".

Mr Pratt, who spent time with some of the rebel movement in Syria in March, said that the mood had changed and now they were in the “ascendancy” in the crisis.