Palestinian Authority Condemns Syria Refugee Camp Shelling

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned on Friday the "heinous" attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, which killed 21 civilians.

"We condemn the heinous crime committed against our people in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, in which dozens of unarmed civilians were killed and wounded," his office said.

In a Thursday night shelling of the camp, 21 civilians -- at least two children -- were killed.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, mortar shells slammed into the camp, on the southern outskirts of Damascus as President Bashar Assad's regime pressed its bid to crush an uprising that erupted almost 17 months ago.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the shelling occurred as clashes flared between government troops and opposition fighters in the nearby Damascus neighborhood of Tadamun.

The Yarmouk district is home to more than 112,000 Palestinians. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), there are altogether 486,000 Palestinian refugees living in nine official and three unofficial camps.

The Palestinian presidency also condemned parties such as Ahmed Jibril and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command for the role they are playing in "involving our people and our camps in the bloody conflict in Syria."

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since the anti-Assad revolt began in March 2011, according to the Observatory. There is no way to independently verify this figure, as the U.N. has stopped keeping count.