Violence raged in Syria on Wednesday, and a key Iranian diplomat huddled with the country’s besieged president to discuss the conflict — now a year and a half old. One opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, said the number of documented deaths exceeds 26,000 since March 2011.

Rebels celebrate taking Turkish border crossing post

Syrian rebels seized a crossing at the Turkish border Wednesday, tearing down the Syrian flag and ripping posters of President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish media reported.

Rebels fired into the air in celebration after taking control of a customs building at the Tal Abyad border gate, the Anadolu Agency reported. “Their kinsmen in Turkey joined them in their celebration from across the Turkish side of the border,” Anadolu said.

Rebel fighters have been trying to take control of border crossings to secure a safe haven near Turkey, a country sympathetic to the Syrian opposition movement.

Opposition: Capital, suburbs engulfed in fighting

At least 62 people were killed in fresh violence Wednesday, including 30 in Damascus and its suburbs, opposition activists said.

Among the dead, 20 people were executed in the capital’s Jobar neighborhood, the LCC said.

Warplanes shelled civilians gathered at a bakery in Deir Ezzor province, the LCC said, killing three people and wounding more than 15.

Regime reports strides in Aleppo, other cities

Government forces inflicted “heavy losses” against “terrorists” in Aleppo, the nation’s most populous city, and its countryside, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said Wednesday.

They destroyed an ammunition warehouse and seized weaponry in the Aleppo operations, the agency said.

Soldiers also said they cleared a Damascus countryside neighborhood of militants, destroyed an ammunition warehouse in Homs and seized a truck in Hama loaded with weapons and ammunition.

Iranian foreign minister visits

Al-Assad met with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Wednesday, the latest meeting with a country that has defended the Syrian regime.

Salehi told reporters that Iran was set to “exchange views with different Syrian groups to find a way out of the crisis which would be acceptable for all parties,” Iranian media said.

Before the meeting, Salehi met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem. Salehi this week also met in Cairo, Egypt, with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts on Syria.

— CNN’s Saad Abedine, Yesim Comert, Joe Sterling and Holly Yan contributed to this report.