The body of a Syrian girl lies on a bed at a makeshift hospital following reported shelling on a kindergarten in the rebel-held area of Harasta, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on November 6, 2016. At least four children were killed and 19 people injured in the government strike in Harasta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Photo: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP
The body of a Syrian girl lies on a bed at a makeshift hospital following reported shelling on a kindergarten in the rebel-held area of Harasta, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on November 6, 2016. At least four children were killed and 19 people injured in the government strike in Harasta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Photo: Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP

At least six children were killed on Sunday in Syrian government shelling that hit a kindergarten in the rebel-held town of Harasta outside the capital Damascus, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said 17 people, most of them children, were also injured in the shelling.

An AFP photographer saw the body of one child, a girl, lying on a bed at a makeshift hospital, her face bloodied and her clothes torn.

At the kindergarten, smears of blood were left on the tiled floor, underneath a small red slide propped against a wall painted with children’s drawings.

Harasta is in the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus, a region that is regularly targeted by government air strikes and shelling.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

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