Breaking News: Syrian General Killed by Gunmen in Damascus

AP / Bilal Hussein

Bullet holes riddle a window in Tripoli, Lebanon, where pro- and anti-Assad forces exchanged fire on Saturday.

A Syrian military general and hospital director was killed in an attack by three gunmen in a residential street in Damascus on Saturday in an assassination that marks a move away from the anti-government uprising’s nonviolent roots. The killing came ahead of a meeting of Arab League members in Cairo to consider a new response to the violence in Syria and as pro- and anti-Assad forces exchanged fire nearby in northern Lebanon. —ARK

The New York Times:

The doctor [Dr. Issa al-Khouli], trained in Romania and France, came from an Alawite family with close ties inside the Assad government that has run Syria for the past 40 years, according to one activist in Syria who was piecing together his biography.

… The killing came as the violent government offensive against Homs continued into a second week, leaving hundreds of dead and wounded. It followed by one day two bombs that targeted security directorates in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 28 people and wounding about 235, according to the government count. Outside analysts and diplomats suggested that the bombings might represent a new foray by Sunni jihadists from neighboring Iraq.

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