Beirut: Intense shelling by Syrian government troops on a village in the country’s south killed at least eight women and girls overnight as forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad pushed ahead with an offensive against rebels near the border with Jordan, activists said Friday.
The Britain-based anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shelling overnight targeted the village of Karak, in eastern Daraa, and killed four women and four girls.
A video posted on a Facebook page of activists from Daraa showed the bodies of the women and children allegedly killed in the shelling wrapped in blankets placed on the ground of a home. Another video from the village showed residents carrying others wounded into vehicles amid wails by women and children and signs of panic.
The videos appeared genuine and were consistent with other reporting of the events.
The United Nations has estimated that more than 6,000 children are among the some 93,000 people killed in Syria’s more than two-year-old conflict, which started with largely peaceful protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad.
The uprising morphed into an armed rebellion in response to a brutal government crackdown on the protest movement.
