By 10 July 2012, rebel forces had captured most of the city of Al-Qusayr, in Homs Governorate, after weeks of fighting.[98] By mid-July, rebels had captured the town of Saraqib, in Idlib Governorate.[99] By mid-July 2012, with fighting spread across the country and 16,000 people killed, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared the conflict a civil war.[100] Fighting in Damascus intensified, with a major rebel push to take the city.[101] On 18 July, Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, former defense minister Hasan Turkmani, and the president's brother-in-law General Assef Shawkat were killed by a suicide bomb attack in Damascus.[102] The Syrian intelligence chief Hisham Ikhtiyar, who was injured in the same explosion, later succumbed to his wounds.[103] Both the FSA and Liwa al-Islam claimed responsibility for the assassination.[104]