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1st LD: Mortar shell kills 9 schoolgirls in Syria's Deir al-Zour

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Nine schoolgirls were killed and 15 others wounded on Tuesday, when a mortar shell fired by rebels slammed into a secondary school in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state-run SANA news agency reported.

The mortar slammed the school in the al-Harabish neighborhood in that oil-rich province, SANA said, spelling no further details.

Mortar attacks have become increasingly common in Syria's nearly five-year-old crisis, with militant groups using the tactic against government-controlled areas.

Earlier on Tuesday, rebels in the eastern countryside of the capital Damascus fired a mortar shell into the predominantly-Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma, leaving unknown losses, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group.

Almost a quarter of a million people, including nearly 12,000 children, have been killed in Syria's conflict since it broke out in March 2011. Endit