Attack in Syria kills 20 in refugee camp.
Syrian army helicopters bombed a refugee camp on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people, mostly women and children, residents and opposition activists said; they claimed the army dropped several barrel bombs.
AMMAN (Reuters) Syrian army helicopters bombed a refugee camp on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people, mostly women and children, residents and opposition activists said. This was the first attack against a refugee camp in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan.
According to them, the army dropped several barrel bombs—a highly destructive improvised explosive device, condemned by Western powers as a war crime—on the refugee camp in the village of Shaira, 2 kilometers from the Jordanian border.
"The women were moaning hysterically when they saw their dead children on the ground," said Abu Mohammad al-Hourani, a farmer who claimed to have helped remove the bodies after the attack.
Hundreds of families fleeing intense fighting between rebels and the army in southern Syria in recent months have sought refuge in the city near the border, which was closed off by Jordan last year after hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees entered.
More than 160 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad and turned into an armed rebellion after a harsh government response.
(By Suleiman Al-Khalidi)