Rebels penetrated the heart of Syria's power elite, detonating a bomb inside a crisis meeting in Damascus that killed three leaders of the regime, including President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law and the Defence Minister Dawoud Rajha.
The unprecedented blow to the ruling dynasty could mark a turning point in the civil war, suggesting that those once close to Assad are turning against him.
Yesterday's bombing follows some of the worst bloodshed of the 16-month uprising, a growing list of high-ranking defections and mounting frustration by world leaders over their inability to find a diplomatic solution.
The White House said the bombing showed Assad was "losing control" of Syria.
Rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had been planning it for two months and finally decided to plant the bomb in the room where the top government security officials in charge of crushing the revolt were holding the meeting.
"God willing, this is the beginning of the end of the regime," said Riad al-Asaad, a commander of the disparate rebel forces who operate across the country, who spoke by phone from Turkey, where he is based.
"Hopefully Bashar will be next," he said in a chilling warning to the 46-year-old Syrian president who once felt so confident in his security that he was known to hate being surrounded by bodyguards.
The whereabouts of Assad, his wife and his three young children were not immediately clear. He gave no immediate statements on the attack, which state-run TV initially blamed on a suicide bomber but later simply called a bomb.
As news of the assassinations broke, Syrians opposed to Assad celebrated in several locations across the country.
Internet video showed people in convoys of cars and motorbikes honking horns and firing weapons in the air in the north-eastern Idlib province, along with Aleppo in the north, Daraa in the south and Homs in central Syria.
In the village of Hass, residents distributed sweets as they gleefully shouted: "You are going to hell, shabihas" - a reference to the pro-regime militia that has been blamed for mass killings.
Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defence Minister Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels' battle to oust Assad; Gen Assef Shawkat, 62, the Deputy Defence Minister who is married to Assad's elder sister, Bushra, and is one of the most feared figures in the inner circle; and Hassan Turkmani, 77, a former Defence Minister who died of his wounds in the hospital.
Also wounded were interior minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj Gen Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.
Rajha was the most senior Christian government official in Syria, appointed to the post by Assad last year. His death will resonate with Syria's Christians, who make up about 10% of the population of 22 million and have mostly stood by the regime.
They say they are particularly vulnerable and they fear that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim groups.
The attack came at a time of great momentum for the forces trying to oust Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades. Although the uprising began in March 2011, recent weeks have seen a spike in potentially transformative events, including high-level defections from the regime.
Four straight days of clashes between rebels and government troops this week in Damascus showed the rebels can now infiltrate the tightly-controlled capital.
On Tuesday, Israel's military intelligence chief said Assad had diverted his troops from the Israeli border area towards the centre of Syria, reflecting the regime's worsening position.
The state-run news agency SANA said the bombing was aimed at the National Security building, a headquarters for one of Syria's intelligence branches and less than 500 yards from the US embassy. The embassy has been closed since Washington withdrew its ambassador months ago.
Although there were no statements from Assad, Syrian TV said after the attack that a decree from him named Gen Fahd Jassem al-Freij, a former army chief of staff, as the new defence minister.
Yesterday's attack was the most brazen by the rebels. The last major attacks on regime figures and government buildings date back to the early 1980s, when the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood waged a guerrilla war to topple the regime of Assad's father and predecessor, President Hafez Assad.
Hafez Assad himself survived an assassination attempt in 1980 when members of the Muslim Brotherhood threw grenades at him, wounding him in the leg.
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, said the bombing could usher in the end of the Assad regime.
"I think this type of event has massive impact," he said. "A few weeks ago, we were counting the lifespan of this regime in months. Now after the last week and today, I think you'd have to say weeks. This is a very fast moving conflict."
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