SANA, LCC (Syria), BBC, SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (UK)
Opposition activists in Syria report that 10 children were killed when a government warplane dropped a cluster bomb on a playground.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) of Syria said on Monday that a MiG fighter jet dropped the cluster bomb in the village of Deir al-Asafir, east of the capital Damascus.
Video footage appeared early Monday allegedly showing mothers grieving for their deceased children, who were reportedly no older than 15 years old. Another unverified video shows various cluster bombs that were found in Deir al-Asafir.
Rami Abdulrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, was hesitant in verifying the claims, saying it is not entirely known what happened.
The Syrian government has dismissed the repeated claims of their use of cluster bombs as "baseless," reports the BBC.
It remains difficult to confirm the number of deaths in Syria as violence intensifies and due to government restrictions on media freedom; however, the LCC said the death toll on Sunday alone reached 117, including 14 children.
The pro-government Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that Bashar al-Assad's government forces "continued their national mission in pursuit of al-Qaeda terrorists" on Sunday.
According to SANA, armed forces destroyed numerous rebel bases in Aleppo and in the surrounding countryside of Damascus.
Whereas, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that opposition rebels had taken control of the Tishreen dam on Monday, which straddles the Euphrates river, and which had been the backdrop to intense fighting over the past several days.
The control of the dam is a strategic victory for the rebels as it crosses over into Aleppo and Raqa provinces.
The UK-based activists also reported Sunday that rebel fighters had momentarily seized control of the military airport of Marj al-Sultan and that they had destroyed a government owned warplane and helicopters.
