Fighting with assault rifles and grenades between opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad escalated in the northern city of Tripoli Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 10, security sources said.

The sources said four men died in the mainly pro-Assad neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, while a fifth person was killed near Bab al-Tabbaneh, a mainly by anti-Assad district of the port city. Tension and fear had gripped Tripoli earlier Monday after both political and security efforts failed to maintain a cease-fire along the demarcation lines between the rival neighborhoods.

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Twenty-three Syrian soldiers were killed in the town of Rastan today in heavy clashes with rebels who destroyed three armoured personnel carriers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Earlier, opposition sources said nine people, including a local rebel commander, were killed in heavy army shelling of Rastan.

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A video posted online in the name of a shadowy militant group late Friday claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the Syrian capital this week that killed 55 people.

In the video, a group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front says the bombing was in response to attacks on residential areas by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

“We fulfilled our promise to respond with strikes and explosions,” a distorted voice says, reading black text that rolls across a white screen while Islamic chanting plays in the background.

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The two car bomb attacks that hit Damascus on Thursday killed 55 people and injured 372, civilians and soldiers, according to the Syrian Ministry of Interior.

“The two attacks that took place at one minute intervals are suicide attacks using car bombs, and left 55 dead and 372 wounded civilians and soldiers, “said the Syrian Ministry of Interior, stating that the explosives weighed “more than 1,000 kg”. Both attacks targeted an intelligence center in the Syrian capital, struck in recent months by a series of deadly attacks.

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Al-Qaeda leader Fahd Al-Quso was killed on Sunday in an airstrike in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa, security sources said.

According to the sources, al-Quso was killed when an airstrike targeted a car which al-Quso was on board along with several militants who were also killed in the attack.

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