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The AP reports that Syrian rebels have successfully killed the first, high-ranking official of President Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime: General Issa al-Khouli was fired upon by three gunmen as he left his home in Damascus this morning. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital. The attack suggests the violence is migrating from outlying cities and Damascus suburbs to the city center, which has been "relatively quiet." Elsewhere in the country, clashes have been intensifying: Yesterday, two explosions rocked the city of Aleppo, killing 25 and wounding hundreds more, while Homs, the country's third-largest city, has seen hundreds more dead over the past week, CNN reports. And the unrest has spread past the country's borders and into Lebanon: At least one is dead and 12 more injured in Tripoli, after supporters and opponents of al-Assad "fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other," the BBC reports.

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