Mortar attack hits Damascus suburb

Five people have been killed and several others injured after a mortar round struck a residential area in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that the victims, a father and his four children, were killed when the mortar fired by the foreign-backed militants hit their car in the residential area of Jaramana.

Reports say many others including the mother were wounded in the attack.

Jaramana, a Christian-Druze populated area, has come under frequent mortar attacks by the militants in recent weeks.

The incident comes two days after a similar attack targeted a residential area in Ashrafiyeh District of Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo, killing at least six children and wounding five others.

The al-Zahira neighborhood of Damascus also came under a mortar attack last week. Four first-grade students were wounded when the shell landed on Aaisha al-Sidiqa school.

According to statistics compiled by the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in nearly three years of turmoil in Syria.