Syria: '28 students killed' in rebel attack on Damascus school

A rebel mortar attack on a school outside Damascus on Tuesday killed 28 students and their teacher, a report has claimed.

Damaged houses are seen in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Nov 29, 2012. Photo: AFP PHOTO / JAVIER MANZANOJavier Manzano/AFP/Getty Images

2:52PM GMT 04 Dec 2012

The mortar smashed into Bteiha school in Wafideen camp about 20 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Damascus, the report said.

Wafideen is home to some 25,000 people displaced from the Golan Heights by the Israeli occupation since 1967.

Reuters news agency quoted Syrian state media as saying 29 people had died in the attack. Other reports put the death toll at nine students and their teacher, with another 20 injured.

"They were killed by a mortar launched by terrorists," said Syrian state television, using the Assad regime's term for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's raging civil war.

Battles east of Damascus have grown especially bloody in past days as troops try to push back rebels in the Eastern Ghouta region as they inch closer towards the capital.

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On Tuesday alone, a total of 16 people were killed in violence in the province of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also reported the killings in the Wafideen camp.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported raging battles on Tuesday at a checkpoint near the strategic road linking Damascus to the international airport.

The army meanwhile shelled several towns and villages in the outskirts of Damascus, both southwest and east of the capital, it said.

Source: agencies

Syria: '28 students killed' in rebel attack on Damascus school - Telegraph