Sophie's choice in Syria?

The soldiers then announced over a loudspeaker that they would start shooting children dead if local rebel fighters did not surrender.

Law student Shadi al-Hari, 21, told the Times how he was standing with his aunt and her two children Omar, 16, and Shadi, five.

A soldier took the two boys and asked their mother to choose which one should die.

When she could not answer their question, they executed her teenage son in front of her.

Mr al-Hari said: ‘They shot him in the head. She collapsed in the street.’