Child victims of Syria

12-year-old Talha Dalal was buried Saturday after doctors lost the battle to save his life after he was shot in the head during a protest last Friday.

While in a protest march in the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus on Friday 15 June, Talha was shot in the head by Syrian security forces, according to the Syrian Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of local activists. He died of his wounds in hospital a week later.

A video posted on Youtube appears to show the incident (graphic). Demonstrators are seen throwing stones and as a few shots ring out Talba’s body is seen lying on the ground. He had been shot in the head.

The LCC said that the pro-regime television channel al-Dounia TV had attempted to force the father of the child to say that it was an “unidentified armed gang” that had shot his son. But the boy's father had refused.

Talba is, according to Radwan Ziadeh, a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University, only one of 85 children who have lost their lives since the uprising in Syria began 15 March. More than 1,600 protesters have been killed, while the regime claims that at least 500 security personnel have lost their lives.

According to the LCC some of the children died “under severe torture.”

13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib made worldwide headlines and became a symbol for the uprising when his family was handed back his tortured and broken body after a month in the custody of security forces.