Syrian girl shot by sniper evacuated to hospital: monitor

A ten-year-old Syrian girl shot in the besieged town of Madaya was evacuated Sunday to a Damascus hospital where she is in a stable condition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Ghina Quwayder's leg was shattered when she was shot by a government sniper at a checkpoint in the southwestern town earlier this month while buying medicine for her mother, according to Amnesty International.

The human rights group had launched a campaign urging the UN humanitarian task force in Syria, which is headed by US and Russian authorities, to evacuate her.

A handout picture taken by a family member and released by Amnesty International on August 13, 2016 shows Syrian Ghina Ahmad Wadi resting at her home in Madaya after being shot in the leg ©Family handout (Amnesty International/AFP)

It had accused the Syrian government of refusing to allow her to be evacuated to a hospital in Damascus or in Lebanon, and said she was in "almost constant, excruciating pain".

"The Syrian Red Crescent evacuated after midnight the girl from Madaya to Damascus," the head of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

A Syrian security source on the ground told AFP that "the girl was evacuated with her mother Sahar to an hospital in Damascus for treatment", saying her "condition is stable".

Ghina's aunt Fadah Jassan, who lives in London, had urged the British government to intervene.

"Children should have no part in this terrible war and I just want powerful countries and the UN to get Ghina out of Madaya and into a properly-equipped hospital," she said in a statement cited by Amnesty.