Mortar shells hit near chemical weapons inspectors’ hotel in Syria

Girl killed and 11 people injured in blasts in upscale Abu Roumaneh area of Damascus.

BEIRUT // Two mortar shells hit Syria's capital on Saturday near a hotel where international chemical inspectors and United Nations staff are staying.
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.
The blasts struck some 300 metres away from the Four Seasons Hotel where the chemical inspectors and UN staff are staying. A UN 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.
Syrian rebels routinely fire mortar shells from the outskirts of Damascus at city neighbourhoods controlled by forces loyal to the president Bashar Al Assad. Last week, a similar attack reportedly killed eight people.
Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and UN staff 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.
* Associated Press