Damascus, Oct 11 (IANS): At least 11 people were killed and 23 wounded in Syria Thursday when some armed men fired four mortar shells into the pro-government suburb of Jaramana, near capital city of Damascus, the state media reported.

Three mortar rounds landed at the entrance of Jaramana near a shopping centre as the fourth one slammed the vicinity of the al- Maouneh Hospital, Xinhua reported, while adding that the attack also caused huge material losses.

Largely inhabited by Christian and Druze minorities, Jaramana has been targeted repeatedly during the country's over two-year long turmoil.

The incident came hours after six people were killed in a rocket attack targeting a district in the country's northern province of Aleppo.

A day earlier, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition the Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ahmet Uzumcu, called for a "temporary ceasefire" in Syria to permit the chemical weapons' experts to carry out their work quickly.