US embassy in Syria attacked

My best friend and her family recently moved to Syria. I've just gotten an email from her - they work at a school and are on lockdown, unable to leave a central room they are holed up in. Their two small children are at home with the equivalent of a US nanny. They've only been in the country a short while, so no one has had proper time to acclimate, and now they are spread out at different parts of Damascus bound by some sort of attack protocol and unable to go and be with their children, as are many other families this morning in Damascus.