The sickest of protests: Syrian children as young as three are dressed in orange jumpsuits and locked in cage by activists in chilling stunt which echoes pilot's immolation by ISIS

Children as young as three dressed in orange jumpsuits and put in a cage
Echoes horrific ISIS video showing Jordanian pilot being torched to death
Stunt by Syrian activists condemning civilian deaths by regime air strikes
Held in city where '180 people have died in conflict since start of month' 

Dressed in orange jumpsuits, a group of young children are locked in a cage in a chilling recreation of the ISIS video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive.

Nearby, a man holds a flaming torch like the one used to set fire to Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh in scenes that have horrified the world.

Thankfully, this was just a stunt by activists calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged atrocities to be likened to those meted out by the jihadists.Hard-hitting protest: An activist holds a burning torch near a group of young children who are locked in a cage in a chilling recreation of the ISIS video which showed a Jordanian pilot being burned alive

Chilling echo of pilot's gruesome death: The stunt was set up by activists calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged atrocities to be likened to those meted out by the jihadists

Inside the cage, the children, some of whom appear to be as young as three, carry banners reading: 'Stop the killing of children'.

The protest, held in Douma, near Damascus, aims to draw attention to Syrians living under siege and dying from air strikes by forces loyal to Assad.

It also condemned the lack of international action compared to that given to the fight against ISIS.

It comes after more than 180 people - 55 of them women and children - were killed in Douma in the first ten days of this month by regime air strikes, according to British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Syrian rebel groups vowed over the weekend to retaliate by stepping up rocket attacks against regime-held areas.

Speaking in a rare interview last week, Assad denied using barrel bombs against his own people - something human rights groups have accused him of doing throughout the four-year civil war.

The defiant tyrant has always denied claims of such atrocities, including allegations that chemical weapons were used in an attack outside the capital in 2013 that killed up to 1,400 people.



The children, some of whom were as young as three, held banners reading: 'Stop the killing of children'

The protest, held in Douma, near Damascus, aims to draw attention to Syrians living under siege and dying from air strikes by forces loyal to Assad

SOHR said yesterday that heavy fighting in southern Syria has killed scores of pro-government and insurgent fighters in the past week, forecasting even fiercer violence as the weather clears.

Syria's army and allied combatants from Lebanon's Hezbollah launched a large-scale offensive in the region last week against insurgent groups, including al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front and non-jihadist rebels.

Southern Syria is one of the last areas where mainstream rebels opposing President Assad have a foothold. They have lost ground to hardline Islamist militants in the four-year conflict.

More than 50 rebels have been killed in the fighting, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdulrahman said 43 members of the Syrian army and allied groups had also died, including 12 officers.

'Now the weather is better there will be Syrian air strikes. With the air strikes they will move forward,' he said.

The protest echoed the brutal death of Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh (above) in a ISIS video released earlier this month

Barbaric: An ISIS extremist lights a trail of petrol leading to the cage in which the 26-year-old stands

State news agency SANA said Syrian forces had inflicted 'heavy losses' on 'terrorist groups' in Deraa on Sunday after killing many enemy fighters and destroying their vehicles the previous day.

Syrian officials were not immediately available for comment on Sunday. State media and Hezbollah's al-Manar channel have carried regular reports on the fighting in the south.

Abdulrahman, who tracks the war using sources on the ground, said around 5,000 pro-government troops were taking part in the offensive, which aims to take a triangle of rebel-held land from rural areas southwest of Damascus to Deraa city to Quneitra.

Sources on both sides of the battlefront have said the offensive aims to shield Damascus, the capital, which is a short drive to the north.

Carnage: Syrians inspect a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in the Douma district of Damascus as the President insisted his army were not indiscriminately killing civilians

Obliterated: Assad denied that the army was using makeshift barrel bombs - crude barrels packed with explosives and shrapnel that are generally dropped by helicopter

An injured civilian sits inside a shelter as he waits to receive medical assistance after airstrikes on the capital

The insurgents made significant gains in the south in recent months, taking several army bases.

'The situation remains hit-and-run between us and regime forces,' said Abu Gaiath, a spokesman for the rebel Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group. Its fighters are part of the 'Southern Front' rebel alliance that has had support from states opposed to Assad.

Speaking via the Internet from inside Syria, he said fighting had calmed in the past two days but the military was aiming to encircle a village northeast of Quneitra and had captured towns and villages south of Damascus.

The Observatory's Abdulrahman said 10 fighters on the government side had been executed after being accused of passing information to the enemy. He also said Nusra Front fighters had been killed in battle but exact numbers were not known.

Winter weather had curtailed fighting in the past few days and prevented air strikes, one of the army's most potent weapons against insurgents.

Abdulrahman said the army and allied groups planned to involve 10,000 fighters in the offensive.