BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian helicopter gunships targeted refugees near the Jordanian border early on Wednesday, killing at least seven people, two activist groups said.

Both the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said the helicopters attacked near the village of Shajara in the southern province of Daraa, which borders Jordan.

Syrian troops and rebels have been battling each other for months in Daraa, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad’s government.

The Observatory said 12 people died in the latest attack, including nine children and teenagers. The Local Coordination Committees put the death toll at seven and said there were four children among those killed, including three children from the Rajeh family.

The two group’s disparate casualty figures, common in the immediate aftermath of attacks, could not immediately be reconciled.

Syria’s conflict, now in its fourth year, has killed at least 160,000 people, according to activists, and forced nearly 3 million to flee the country.

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