World / Damascus Syrian Rebels Kill Top Assad General Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi was senior Air Force general By Liam Carnahan, Newser Staff Posted Oct 31, 2012 12:07 AM CDT Copied In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2012 photo, a Syrian rebel fighter takes cover as he watches over the enemy position as mortar explosions and gunfire in Aleppo, Syria on the first day of Eid Al-Adha. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras) A senior Air Force general has been assassinated by members of the Free Syrian Army in Damascus late Monday, says Syria's state-run news channel. Rebels took responsibility for his death and claimed to have also killed an air force intelligence official in the fell swoop, reports the BBC. The assassination, the latest in a string of high-level deaths, comes amid airstrikes in Damascus and its surrounding suburbs as Bashar al-Assad's army tries to reclaim control of the city. (More Damascus stories.) Report an error