21 killed in Syria attack on residential buildings: watchdog

At least 21 people, many of them women, were today killed when residential buildings were bombarded by regime forces in a town in eastern Syria, a watchdog said.

At least one building collapsed after the air and artillery strike in the town of Mayadin, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

Abdel Rahman said at least 12 women had been killed and dozens of people also wounded in the bombardment, which flattened one building and seriously damaged another, trapping several people.

Mayadin, a town of about 55,000 people, lies on the Euphrates river in the province of Deir Ezzor.

The Observatory has a network of activists on the ground in Syria but its information cannot be independently confirmed because of tough restrictions on reporting in the country.