Write a headline for this story: 1 line, 28 count, Use the counting system on Blackboard. As many as 30,000 Syrians may have fled across the border to neighboring Lebanon in the past 48 hours, as intense fighting spread across the Syrian capital of Damascus and attacks spiked in other cities across the country. “We have reports we are trying to verify that thousands of Syrians overnight and yesterday crossed into Lebanon,” Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said at a briefing in Geneva on Friday. “So far reports vary between 8,500 and 30,000 people who may have crossed.” Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down. With so many Syrians crossing the border in such a short period of time, some Lebanese are concerned that the influx could spark sectarian conflict in their own country, where recent clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites have left more than 20 dead. Syrian state television reported, meanwhile, that Lt. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiyar, the country’s national security chief, died of wounds sustained Wednesday when a bomb planted by rebels detonated in a meeting of high-level security officials. Ikhtiyar was the fourth member of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle killed by the explosion, which shattered the already fragile chances of a negotiated peace deal and brought the civil revolt that has raged for 16 months into the heart of Assad’s government.

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