Syria: Seven children killed in blast in south, state media says

Seven children have been killed in a blast in southern Syria, according to state media.

An "explosive device" was detonated in the city of Sanamayn in Daraa province on Saturday, Sana reported, quoting a police source, resulting in the deaths of several children and the injuries of "two other people... one of them a woman".

The UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), also reported on the blast, saying that militias were accused of planting the device in order to target an unidentified person in the area.

SOHR placed the number of those killed at "eight children of different ages" with another child wounded in the blast.

Daraa is known to be the cradle of the Syrian uprising of 2011.

Protests initially erupted in Daraa in 2011 after a group of teenagers was arrested over anti-regime graffiti. A Russian-backed ceasefire deal in 2018, however, saw the city return to regime control. 

The province has been wracked by poor living conditions and violence since.

More than 507,000 people have been killed since the war began, while millions have been displaced.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), Syria poses one of the largest displacement crises in the world, with over 12 million Syrians displaced and over 5.4 million living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

UNHCR states that over 14.6 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance, with the economic situation deteriorating significantly due to US sanctions, devaluation of the Syrian pound, rising inflation and hikes in fuel prices.