Mortar attack on Syrian school for girls kills nine students

At least nine students have been killed and several more injured by a mortar shell that shammed into their school in north-eastern Syria, the government and an opposition monitoring group said.

Syrian television said the shell hit the Harabesh primary school for girls in a government-held part of Deir el-Zour and was fired by “terrorists” – the term the government uses for all armed groups fighting against president Bashar Assad’s forces.