That still doesn't mean he didn't even today - sure the tide had turned in his favour but he still had and still has a long long way to go with some kind of final victory far from assured especially if foreign actors threw resources at the situation anew.
If it was a chemical attack carried out by forces on the side of the Assad regime though with the state of things on the ground it is far from certain that it was sanctioned at the highest levels. (None the less local commander(s) took a lot of heat for the losses and being pushed back a few days before and might have taken extreme measures in response to the pressure they were under from higher up to get results).
The alleged attack in Douma was a complete joke.
The story they want you to believe is that the evil monster Assad or his demonic Syrian Arab Army signed off on a militarily useless chemical weapons attack in the last pocket of resistance of Ghouta even though they had used conventional weapons successfully to clear the rest of it and were in negotiations with the 'rebels' for their surrender who did a few days later.
So they were about to win yet did the one thing telegraphed in advance by the US et al as being an act that would trigger airstrikes?
The Russians even said in the days leading up to it they had intelligence that the jihadi rebels were going to stage a CW attack.
Makes no sense at all. The Syrian army does nothing without Russia signing off on it first. Cui bono? The only people that would gain from it were the 'rebels'.
Now look at the actual evidence for the attack. It comes entirely from the White Helmets and the 'rebels' in the area at the time, the Army of Islam.
The WHs were founded by an ex-British army officer and is funded by the UK, US etc - the same countries wanting to overthrow Assad. They have only ever operated in jihadi-controlled territory and their website calls for western 'intervention'. Strange for supposed humanitarians.
The Army of Islam is a Saudi-funded jihadist group, but if you can't trust Saudi-funded jihadis who can you trust?
Robert Fisk and numerous other journalists went there in the immediate aftermath and the locals contradicted the claims. The Russians found several of the people (including medical staff) in the video released by the rebels who were 'treated' after the attack and they were all perfectly healthy and said it was a hoax.
Interest from our press? Zero.
The OPCW couldn't find any sarin or other chemical weapons, but only traces of chlorine which anyone has access to and the cannisters found wouldn't be anywhere near enough to kill the numbers claimed. Two cannisters (that looked planted) killed over a hundred? In WW1 they had to fire hundreds of shells containing tons to be effective.
Once the Syrians make a move on the jihadi-infested Idlib we'll no doubt hear of another convenient CW attack.