Rebels seized control of a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey on Wednesday, pulling down the Syrian flag and briefly allowing people _ some jubilant, some wounded _ to crawl under a barbed wire barrier between the countries.

Turkish authorities quickly closed the area and police prevented the crowd from trying to storm the border and cross into Syria.

“I am a free Syrian!” shouted Zisha Bargash, throwing his hands in the air, as he watched the takeover from the Turkish side. “This is the beginning of the end Assad. Game over.”

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Three Yemeni soldiers of the Central Security were killed and several others were wounded in a blast that targeted a commander of the Central Security in Al-Mukala of Hadhramout governorate on Sunday, local sources affirmed.

The sources said that violent clashes between soldiers of the Central Security and unknown armed men followed the explosion, pointing out that the situations are still intense, particularly around a military of the Central Security in Al-Mukla.

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Syria’s state media said the Syrian troops have fully “purged” the Midan district in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday from armed militias.

SANA news agency said the army eliminated all the insurgents in Midan, adding that scores of other armed men were killed in a qualitative operation by the army at the Fardous district.

Also in Aleppo, the army troops have killed many “terrorists” and confiscated satellite phones while raiding a hideout of armed insurgents at al-Arqoub district in the crucial northern city.

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Said al-Shihri, described as the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been killed in an operation in southern Yemen, government officials say.

Al-Shihri was reportedly killed with six others in the Hadramawt area.

Some reports say Yemeni troops were involved, others that it was an air strike, possibly a US drone attack.

Al-Shihri, a Saudi national, was released by the US from detention in Guantanamo Bay in 2007.

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Syrian troops bombarded a central neighbourhood of Aleppo on Sunday after a day of fierce clashes with rebels who tried to take the regime-controlled district, a watchdog said.

“The bombardment of Bustan al-Basha has stopped but could start up again any time,” a resident told AFP.

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