Syrian army shelling kills 16 in Hama -rights groups

Syrian army shelling killed 16 people, including children, on Sunday in the town of Souran in the central province of Hama, the British-based rights group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.    

Earlier, a roadside bomb exploded 150 meters from a United Nations convoy carrying the head of a Syria ceasefire monitoring mission in the town of Douma, a Reuters witness said.   

Major General Robert Mood's car was stopped at an army checkpoint when the bomb detonated in an nearby alleyway and the convoy left, the Reuters journalist said, adding that there were no reports of casualties.

Opposition groups earlier said a restive district of the Syrian capital has been rocked by overnight fighting between government forces and army defectors.        

The Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say the clashes took place in Kfar Souseh district early on Sunday morning but there were no immediate reports of casualties. The activist groups say gunfire was heard in several other neighborhoods of Damascus.           

Syrian rebels claimed in an Internet statement that they carried out a sophisticated attack that killed top political and security officials meeting in the capital.          

But the Syrian interior minister denied the reports in a phone call to state-run Syrian TV, saying they were "laughable."       

AP