Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 08:00 GMT
Activists: Mortar hits protest in Syria, 10 killed


This video image taken from amateur video and broadcast by Bambuser/Homslive shows a series of devastating explosions rocking the central Syrian city of Homs, Syria, Monday, June 11, 2012. /AP

AP

Violence in Syria has spiked in recent weeks,

Activists say a mortar round has hit an anti-government demonstration in an eastern Syrian city, killing at least 10 people.

The Local Coordination Committees and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say Tuesday's attack in Deir el-Zour hit the protesters as they were dispersing.

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

Violence in Syria has spiked in recent weeks, as President Bashar Assad's regime and the opposition ignore an internationally brokered cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect 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.