Unidentified gunmen stormed a Damascus home and killed five members of a family that supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a monitoring group said on Sunday.
"Five members of one pro-regime family -- a man, his wife and their three daughters -- were killed by unidentified gunmen in the district of Rukn al-Din" in northern Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Their fourth child, an eight-year-old boy, survived by hiding in the bathroom, said the Britain-based group.
It added that one of the daughters was a schoolgirl while the other two were university students.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said there were conflicting reports about how the family was killed.
Some sources said they were shot dead, while others said they were "slaughtered", he told AFP.
He also said the family was likely Alawite, because they come from the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of the minority community to which belongs the Assad clan.
"Five members of one pro-regime family -- a man, his wife and their three daughters -- were killed by unidentified gunmen in the district of Rukn al-Din" in northern Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Their fourth child, an eight-year-old boy, survived by hiding in the bathroom, said the Britain-based group.
It added that one of the daughters was a schoolgirl while the other two were university students.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said there were conflicting reports about how the family was killed.
Some sources said they were shot dead, while others said they were "slaughtered", he told AFP.
He also said the family was likely Alawite, because they come from the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of the minority community to which belongs the Assad clan.
