Seriously, I don't know what Assad's mainly Alawite forces and/or Iranian paramilitary Shi'a elements hope to achieve with this ... "technology". One could probably build something way more sophisticated by just browsing DIYDrones, Arduino or some other hobby site. Even then it's highly dubious that without a highly persistent operation, a rationally quantifiable set of purposes and an extensive integrated visual analysis structure any more qualitatively useful information could possibly emerge.
France24, for instance, managed to get a film crew with "rebel" elements (can't remember whether it was the Free Syrian Army, probably just an impromptu group of fighters with more or less nominal leaders): What emerged was a chaotic and complicated picture. "Accords" mediated by "trusted persons" between local government and rebel commanders. Casualties treated in makeshift clinics wherever. Recognizable encampments of different armed elements here and there but no real front lines stretching very far from particular neighborhoods and villages - beyond that it's just a free for all. Both sides' ability to mount anything beyond symbolic operations seems unlikely, especially in the face of the increasingly real and acute needs of the Syrian population. Bad and improvised tactics and strategies all around. Government operatives don civvies in an attempt to spy on rebels. Many government operatives seem equally eager to moonlight as rebel informants. Some of the (rebel) weaponry and signals hardware seemed remarkably new though.
So, what a glorified RC pilot and his buddy looking at a jumpy, buggy video feed might glean from flying these contraptions is quite literally anyone's guess. This is just the absurdity and hollowness of a dictatorship imploding into a morass of a tragedy. No amount of drones, Iranian, Chinese or Russian meddling can carve a role for Assad and his closely knit circle other than adding to the chaos. In the face of such impotence there can't be any morale left to speak of, save for those delusions that holding ostensibly unquestioned power brings. It's just a question of how long does the pointless suffering and this dangerous limbo continue. The only UAVs over Syria with the potential of decreasing the overall entropy on the ground originate from Turkey, Israel and perhaps the local US forces.
