Regime strike ‘kills 15 Palestinians in Syria’

At least 15 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in Syria on Wednesday after a rocket attack on Yarmouk refugee camp by pro-regime forces, activists have said. "The rockets hit a residential and shopping area way behind the front line. The victims were civilians," activist Rami al-Sayyed from the Syrian Media Centre opposition monitoring group told Reuters, adding that 45 people were wounded.The Yarmouk Camp Coordination Committee said two Grad missiles fired by the pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) killed five women and five children in the Hamdan Bakery area of Yarmouk in south of Damascus.Video footage posted by activists showing a destroyed building and people collecting body parts from the rubble could not be independently verified.The news comes after reports that three Palestinians were killed during clashes in Syria on Tuesday. Firas Abu al-Hasan, Muhammad Abdul-Ghani al-Nasser, and Basil al-Umari were killed in Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus as Syrian regime forces clashed with rebels, the Taskforce for Palestinians in Syria said. Yarmouk camp came under heavy shelling on Tuesday from the Syrian army, with warplanes also hovering over the camp, according to the group. The rebel-held camp has been under siege by regime and PFLP-GC forces for months. Palestinian officials insist that refugees in Syria are not involved in the deadly war rocking the country, citing security concerns for the vulnerable refugee population if they are perceived to take sides. But Syria's uprising has split Palestinian loyalties, with many ordinary Palestinians sympathetic to the uprising by their fellow Sunnis, and others recalling the Syrian government's long-support for Palestinians. In March, the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria said that over 1,377 Palestinians had been killed in the ongoing Syria conflict, with that number thought to have increased significantly since then. Additional reporting: Maan