At least three children on their way to the school were killed in northwestern Syria.
The shelling targeted the village of Maaret al-Naasan in Idlib province, which is home to more than 3 million people, many of them internally displaced by the country’s war which started in 2011.
Hajj Ahmed, the principal at al-Amal school, said the attack happened at about 11:15 a.m. and that one of the students was in the ninth grade. Another was in the seventh grade and two were in the eighth grade.
“They were on their way to start their school day and this strike hit,” he said.
The boys were killed about 50 meters (165 feet) away from the school and their blood-splattered school bags were still on the ground sometime after the shelling. Their bags had the markings of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.
The bodies were later put in black bags and buried in the village’s cemetery.
“This is a stark reminder that the war on children continues,” said UNICEF spokesperson Juliette Touma. “Every child in Syria, wherever they are, has the right to go to school in safety.” Inputs from Reuters