A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross says the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib has been shot dead.

Hicham Hassan is an ICRC spokesman in Geneva. He says Abdulrazak Jbero was heading by car to Idlib from Damascus Wednesday, Jan 25, when he was shot.

Authorities are still gathering details.

Government forces clashed with army defectors and stormed rebellious districts in central Syria on Wednesday, firing mortars and deploying snipers in violence that, according to activists, killed at least seven people, including a mother and her 5-year-old child, The Associated Press reported.