Syria protesters killed by mortar attack

At least 10 people were killed when a mortar round hit an anti-government demonstration in an eastern Syrian city today, activists said.

The Local Co-ordination Committees and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in Deir el-Zour hit protesters as they were dispersing.

The mortar attack came hours after a car bomb killed a dozen people in Deir el-Zour, close to the border with Iraq, late last night.

Violence in Syria has increased in recent weeks, as President Bashar Assad's regime and the opposition ignore an internationally brokered ceasefire which was supposed to take effect on April 12 but never took hold.

Activists say more than 13,000 people have been killed since Syria's crisis, the worst in decades, began in March 2011.