A suicide car bombing on Nov. 5 killed 50 Syrian security forces in Hama, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, Syria’s speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Osama al-Laham, was assassinated the next day in central Damascus, according to The New York Times.

The violence reflected the ongoing turmoil that has engulfed the country since last year and left more than 30,000 Syrians dead.

The attacks constituted a blow for the Syrian regime, and came one day after the funeral of Mohamed Rafeh, a television star who supported the regime’s violent suppression of the uprising and was abducted and killed over the weekend.

“It’s a real war,” said one activist in southern Damascus. “Explosions, bombing and gunfire, and of course the helicopters, which have become part of the sky in Damascus now, like birds.”