A top Syrian general was assassinated Saturday outside his home in Damascus one day after suicide bombers attacked a police headquarters and a military complex in Aleppo.
Three gunmen killed Brigadier General Issa al-Kholi, director of the Hamish Hospital in Damascus, according to the official Syrian Arab News Service, SANA.
Two suicide car bombers attacked a police headquarters and a military security branch on Friday in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 28 people and injuring 235 others. Among the victims were military personnel, civilians and children, according to the government news service.
Aleppo, Syria’s main commercial hub, had been relatively quiet during the 11-month uprising, but has seen increasing protests and violence in recent weeks.
Syrian government forces killed at least 35 people also on Saturday, according to Al Arabiya television, which quoted the Syrian Revolution Committee. Among the victims were 19 who died in the central city of Homs, which has been targeted by Syrian security forces for weeks in the government’s efforts to crush the 11-month-old uprising.
The rapidly developing Syrian civil war is beginning to spill over into Lebanon as well: two people died and 19 others were wounded in clashes between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday, according to Al Arabiya.
Assad reportedly has sent his mother and children, as well as the children of key regime figures, out of the country.