Mortars kill 1 child, wound dozens in Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Two mortar rounds landed near schools in predominantly Christian districts of the Syrian capital Tuesday, killing one child and wounding 41 other people, state media said.
Syria's official news agency said one of the shells struck a school in the Bab Touma neighborhood, killing one child and wounding 36 others. In a separate attack, another mortar round exploded near the Mar Elias Church in the Dweilaa district, wounding five people. The church compound also includes a school.
Rebels frequently launch mortar shells into government-held neighborhoods in the heart of the capital from outlying districts that are under opposition control.
Opposition fighters say they aren't specifically targeting Damascus' large Christian minority. Still, because the mortars cannot be precisely targeted, their victims have often been civilians, including children in schools.
The attacks come a day after Syrian troops swept through some of the last remaining opposition strongholds in the countryside north of Damascus. President Bashar Assad's forces captured three villages, including the ancient Christian hamlet of Maaloula, near the border with Lebanon as part of a government offensive aimed at severing rebel supply routes across the frontier.
On Tuesday, another town in the area, Assal al-Ward, fell into government hands, state TV said.
The Syrian army, backed by fighters from its Hezbollah allies, launched an offensive in the rugged region known as Qalamoun in November. It has captured all but a few opposition strongholds in the area since then, strengthening its grip on the border while also boosting the defenses of Damascus.
In the central city of Homs, 15-year-old Tarek Ghrair, a player for the country's national youth football team was killed when a mortar shell exploded near his home in the Ghouta district, according to the Syrian Football Association's president. The city's main stadium is located the neighborhood.
The attack came as Syrian forces pounded rebel-held areas of Homs by air on Tuesday, as part of a days-long assault to try to take back opposition neighborhoods, activists said.
Homs, Syria's third largest city, has seen some of the worst fighting in the three-year-old conflict. The war has killed more than 150,000 people.
In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's foreign minister, Saud Al-Faisal, called on the international community to take "firm action" against the Syrian government for its alleged use of poisonous gas last week in the rebel-held village of Kafr Zeita in Hama province.
Activists say Syrian government aircraft dropped explosive-laden barrels that also contained chlorine gas on the village on Friday and Saturday, killing two people and wounding dozens. Syrian state TV said blamed the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front for the attack.
U.S. officials have said the claims of poison gas are so far unsubstantiated, but that Washington was trying to establish what occurred.
Online videos posted by rebel activists showed pale-faced men, women and children gasping for breath at what appeared to be a field hospital. They suggested an affliction by some kind of poison.
The videos resembled — albeit on a much smaller scale — of an Aug. 21 chemical attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people.
Speaking in the Saudi capital, Al-Faisal said that "these continuing abuses by the regime in Damascus are now requiring the international community to take firm action against the regime's continued defiance."
Saudi Arabia has championed rebel efforts to overthrow Assad's rule, and has been exasperated with Washington's cautious approach to the conflict.
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Associated Press writer Barbara Surk and Diaa Hadid in Beirut, and Aya Batrawi in Dubai contributed to this report.
