The Assad regime slated a presidential election for June 3; requests for nomination will be accepted until May 1. Mortar shells landed 100 meters from the Parliament in Damascus, killing five people. Rebels led by the Al Nusrah Front launched a counteroffensive in Homs, where they were joined by the Islamic Front. The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Hama, Reef Dimashq, and Aleppo. In Deir Izzour, the Islamic Front continued to clash with regime forces near the military airport in Deir Izzour city, and Al Nusrah carried out two suicide car bombings in Ghariba. In Hasakah, the German-rapper-turned-jihadist Denis Mamadou Cuspert was reportedly killed by an Al Nusrah suicide attack on foreign fighters affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham.
