Syrian government forces on Friday killed as many as 74 people across the country, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the Local Coordination Committees.
Government forces shelled residential neighborhoods in Homs using missiles and mortar shells, especially in Talbeesa and al-Qussour neighborhoods.
Random shelling of Deir Ezzor has left scores of people killed and injured; whereas activists said that dozens were killed in the town of Hayyan in the suburbs of Aleppo.
Activists added that another massacre was committed against civilians in Deraa.
Thousands of families in Syria have fled their homes in the past two weeks due to heavy fighting between government forces and rebels and many face food shortages, the United Nations said on Friday.
Food prices have tripled in parts of seven provinces where the livelihoods of farmers and livestock herders are at risk of collapse because the wheat harvest is being delayed by a shortage of diesel, needed for machinery, it said, according to Reuters.
“The overall situation is characterized by severe insecurity and ongoing fighting which means that U.N. agencies do not have access to many areas,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a news briefing in Geneva.
Many of the 200,000 residents of Duma, 15 km (10 miles) north of the capital, have fled to central Damascus, OCHA said.
Activists said on Wednesday that residents in the “ghost city” recovered mutilated corpses after a rampage by militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and army shelling.
About 30,000 people have fled the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and moved north towards Hassaka and al-Raqqa, OCHA said. Civilians are also leaving Hama, Idlib and al-Raqqa and heading towards Aleppo.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has previously estimated that at least 500,000 people are internally displaced in the country.
Syrian authorities and officials from the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) carried out a joint assessment of food security in seven provinces.
“Problems with access to diesel for machinery are hampering the wheat harvest and internally displaced families living in urban and peri-urban (beside urban areas) settings are facing rapidly increasing food insecurity,” OCHA said. “Urgent food and agriculture and livestock assistance are required before the onset of winter.”