Air strikes kill 12 kids

UAE Ambassador to Jordan Abdullah Nasser Al Ameri talks with Syrian refugee children near the Jordan border. Photo: AFP

Air strikes by regime warplanes killed at least 12 children in two incidents on Sunday, one targeting a Kurdish village in northeast Syria and the other a district of Damascus, a watchdog said, reports AFP.
"Sixteen people were martyred after a warplane targeted the village of Haddad, which is majority Kurdish... including at least three children and two women," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In the second incident, at least nine more children were killed in an air strike on the Qabun neighbourhood of northeastern Damascus, said the Britain-based Observatory.
Syria's air force launched several air strikes on rebel enclaves in and around Damascus, while fresh clashes between troops and rebels raged to the east of the capital, a monitoring group said yesterday.
"At least one civilian was killed in an air strike on Qaboon" in northeastern Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, "while regime troops pounded the district of Jubar" in the east.
Syrian government troops have broken through a six-month rebel blockade in northern Syria and are now fighting to recapture a vital highway, opposition and state media said yesterday.
Rebels had kept the army bottled up in the Wadi al-Deif and Hamidiya military bases in Idlib province. But on Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad's forces outflanked the rebels and broke through, the pro-government al-Baath newspaper said, reports Reuters.
The insurgents counter-attacked on Monday but their front has been weakened in recent weeks due to infighting and the deployment of forces to other battles, activists said.