In Damascus this morning a bomb at the National Security building killed several members of Bashar al-Assad’s “crisis cell” —a group of key regime figures tasked to put down the 16-month uprising against the Assad regime. Interior minister Mohammed al-Shaar and head of national security General Hisham Ikhtiyar, are reportedly wounded. The dead include the head of the crisis cell, General Hassan Turkmani, the defense minister, Daoud Rajha, and, most significantly, two Assad family members, the president’s brother in-law Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian military, and Hafez Makhlouf, head of the Damascus branch of the General Security Directorate. An opposition source, Kamal Labwani, claims the president’s brother Maher al-Assad was “probably injured” in the blast.

The bombing comes after several days of “intense fighting” in the Syrian capital. Indeed, the chief of Israel’s military intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi says that Assad has removed troops from the border on the Golan Heights and transferred them to Damascus.