Artillery shells struck near the main street of a Syrian village controlled by the government on Tuesday, sending international reporters diving for cover and highlighting the fragility of a partial cease-fire that both sides in the civil war say has been repeatedly violated.

The blasts that shook Kinsibba, near the Turkish border, came as the journalists were touring the village under Russian military escort. No one was wounded by the artillery, but four of the journalists - from China, Canada, Bulgaria and Russia - suffered minor cuts as they ran for cover or threw themselves to the ground.

The head of Russia's coordination center for the Syrian crisis, Sergei Kuralenko, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying eight shells hit and that four journalists were lightly wounded.