Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 people overnight in a Sunni Muslim village north-west of the city of Hama, activists said on Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a woman and two children were among those killed in the attack in the village of Sheikh Hadid by soldiers and pro-Assad militia.
The British-based group, which monitors violence in Syria through a network of activists and medical and security sources, said the killings followed attacks by rebels on military checkpoints in the area over the previous two days. It said 26 people – 16 soldiers and 10 members of the pro-Assad National Defence Force – were killed when rebels attacked a nearby checkpoint on Thursday. There was also fighting in the village of Jalma, two miles south of Sheikh Hadid, on Friday, it said. The opposition Shaam News Network put the death toll in Sheikh Hadid in the dozens, but gave no details. More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which grew out of a 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The conflict pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against a president whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
