Syria bombs Palestinian refugee camp

Syrian jets bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus on Sunday as the regime tried to stop rebels winning more territory in the government heartland.

Activists and local residents said at least eight people were killed when air strikes hit a mosque in the camp that was being used as a makeshift shelter for more than 600 people who had escaped heavy fighting in neighbouring districts. The attack came hours after Syrian rebels made advances into the camp, a poor area inhabited by many of the estimated 500,000 Palestinians living in Syria.

The fighting in the camp has split residents between those supporting the government and those assisting the insurgency. "There is a state of real war in the camp now," said Abu Mohammed, a resident, who claimed that there were "intense battles between the Free Syrian Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command", a hardline Palestine militant group allied with the Syrian regime.

The camp is in territory south of Damascus that has fallen into rebel hands in recent weeks.