Syrian army artillery has killed a family of five in the mountainous town of Madhaya near the besieged city of Zabadani on the Lebanese border, activists said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, thousands of families fled Zabadani and neighboring villages as fighting between Islamist rebels and Assad forces, backed by Hezbollah, enters its fourth week.
Activists also reported the death of seven people when barrel bombs struck the town of Bukain on Friday.
On another battlefront, the Syrian army and allied National Defense Force militia regained control over several northwestern villages from rebels on a plain crucial for defending regime-held coastal areas, Reuters reported Saturday.
The military is battling insurgents including Al-Qaeda's Syria wing the Nusra Front and the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham for control of Sahl al-Ghab, a plain that runs alongside the western coastal mountains near Hama city.
