Pro-regime forces kill several civilians including children in southern Syria

A total of six people, including three children, were killed Thursday after artillery shells fired by Syrian regime forces hit a village in southern Syria, according to local sources.

This came after regime forces clashed with Syria's opposition forces at Jalin village in Daraa countryside, leaving two members of opposition forces and eight regime forces dead.

The regime withdrew its forces from the region and carried out the artillery attack targeting the village.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

It was a period of "Arab Spring" in the Middle East, and, a group of students in Syria's Daraa wrote "Ohh doctor (Bashar al-Assad), it is your turn" on the walls on March 15, 2011, igniting a revolt against the Syrian regime.

Inflicted with unemployment, corruption and oppression under a single-party rule for half a century, Syrian people carried out demonstrations across the country.

When the Syrian regime began to suppress demonstrations with violence, it evolved into a fully-fledged civil war.

UN officials said that the Syrian regime has committed war crimes such as using chemical weapons, starving the population, deportation, blockade, arbitrary arrests and tortures.