Shells hit near Syria hotel of arms team; girl, 8, dies

BEIRUT — Two mortar shells hit Syria’s capital Saturday near a hotel where international chemical inspectors and United Nations staff members are staying, state media and a hotel guest said.

An 8-year-old girl was killed and 11 people were hurt in the blasts in the upscale Abu Roumaneh area of Damascus, the SANA news agency said. One shell fell near a school and the other on the roof of a building.

The girl was in her family car near the school when she was killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist group monitoring the fighting.

The blasts damaged several cars and shattered nearby windows. One resident was seen sweeping debris on a sidewalk, near where twisted metal pieces from the wreckage had been heaped in a small pile.

The blasts struck some 1,000 feet away from the Four Seasons Hotel where the chemical inspectors and U.N. workers are staying. A U.N. employee staying there said it did not appear that the hotel was affected by the twin explosions. The hotel remained open after the blasts, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

He said he heard the first explosion about 11:15 a.m., followed by a second. Thick smoke rose from the area and ambulance sirens sounded shortly afterward.

Syrian rebels routinely fire mortar shells from the outskirts of Damascus at city neighborhoods controlled by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. Last week, a similar attack reportedly killed eight people.

Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and U.N. workers have been in Syria for the past two weeks to destroy the country’s chemical-weapons stockpile. The watchdog agency working to eliminate chemical weapons around the world won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a powerful endorsement of its Syria mission.

The inspectors have so far visited three sites linked to Syria’s chemical-weapons program, though the agency has not provided details. On Saturday, before the mortar attack, a convoy of U.N. cars left the Four Seasons, but its destination was not known.

The inspectors’ mission in Syria is unprecedented because of a tight timetable — they are to get the job done by mid-2014 — and because they are operating in the middle of a civil war.

They are to inspect more than 20 sites, some close to front lines crisscrossing the country.

Last week, Syrian warplanes twice bombed the rebel-held town of Safira, just a few miles from a large military complex believed to house an underground chemical-weapons production facility.

The Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011 as a popular uprising against Assad that quickly escalated into civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed since then and millions of Syrians have been displaced.

Rebel groups have become increasingly fractured, with Islamic extremists, including those linked to al-Qaida, assuming prominent roles in battle.

In an audio message Friday, the leader of al-Qaida urged jihadis in Syria to unite, an appeal likely aimed at rival affiliates of his terror network operating in the country.

Ayman al-Zawahri said fighters must “rise above organizational loyalties and party partisanship” and unite behind the goal of setting up an Islamic state. He suggested he will not impose unity, saying that “what you agree upon will also be our choice.”

Al-Zawahri also urged Syrian regime opponents not to cut deals with Western and secular groups.