Militant groups kill seven in Syria

Damascus, July 10 (IANS) At least seven people, including three women, were killed in separate incidents in central and southern Syria Thursday, media reported.

Ammar al-Khatib, a member of the National Reconciliation Committee, was assassinated in Tal town in the countryside of the capital Damascus along with his 14-year-old son, Xinhua reported citing the official SANA news agency.

The gunmen opened fire on al-Khatib and his son near Tal's al-Basha Mosque.

The assassination of al-Khatib came just hours after another member of the National Reconciliation Committee, Mohammed Marwan Hammudeh, was assassinated in the Damascus' suburb of Qudsaya.

The committee has been tasked with establishing reconciliation with the armed Syrian rebels, who are desirous of dropping their weapons in exchange for amnesty.

In the central province of Hama, armed militant groups killed three women in the southern countryside of Hama and mutilated their bodies Thursday, according to SANA.

The armed groups infiltrated into the town Taqsis, killing the three women, who were members of one family, and beheading them afterwards.

The violence is the latest in a series of endless chaos the Syrian crisis has produced over the past three years, where more than 100,000 people were killed and millions of others were displaced.