Syria 'cluster bomb' kills kids

A Syrian government air strike on a rebel-held village near Damascus killed 10 children on Sunday as they played outdoors, opposition activists said, and video footage showed residents collecting young bodies torn by shrapnel.

The children went out after a lull in fighting in Deir al-Asafir, a village 8 miles east of Damascus, when fighter jets struck, activists and residents said.

"None of those killed were older than 15 years old. There are two women among 15 people wounded, mostly hit as they were inside the courtyards of their houses," said Abu Kassem, an activist in the village told Reuters.

"There were no fighters inside Deir al-Asafir when the bombing occurred. They operate on the outskirts. This was indiscriminate bombing," he said.

Abu Kassem said the munitions dropped by the fighter jets were cluster bombs. Footage published by activists showed a row of what appeared to be unexploded small bombs.

Syria has barred most reporters from the country making it hard to verify the report.

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Syrian war planes attacked a rebel headquarters near the Turkish border this morning but appeared to miss their target, opposition activists in the region said.

"The (Free Syrian Army) joint command is located in a school. It seems they have missed it. There were two jets - one of them looked like a reconnaissance aircraft. They had been flying over the area for an hour," activist Mohammad Abdallah said.

They said a Turkish fighter was scrambled to the area. There was no immediate comment from Turkish authorities about the incident, which occurred in Atima village in hilly farmland across the border from Turkey's Hatay province.

Rebels fired anti-aircraft guns at the jets but they were flying too high to be hit, they said.

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