Syrian forces shelled al-Houla and al-Khaldiya neighborhoods in Homs on Wednesday.

Heavy clashes were reported in al-Sayyeda Zeinab neighborhood in Damascus suburb between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the government troops. Clashes intensified and extended gradually, reaching al-Hajar al-Aswad, activists said.

In Duma, in Damascus suburbs, heavy shootings were reported near the residential areas, activists at the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said. Government forces shot at protests overnight in Maadamiyat al-Sham, Kafer Sousa and Khaled Ibn al-Waleed Street in central Damascus.

Scores of people were killed by the fire of Syrian forces on Tuesday, mostly in Homs and Deir Ezzor, where 13 people were executed, with their hands tied, in a new massacre, activists said. Most of Deir Ezzor victims were employees at the electricity company, who went on strike in protest of the massacres committed by the Syrian regime, activists said.

International envoy Kofi Annan has urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to act now to end 15 months of bloodshed, warning the country has reached a “tipping point” as Western nations ordered out its top diplomats.

Another day of deadly violence on Tuesday was the bloody backdrop to Annan’s last-gasp efforts to salvage his peace plan, with 98 people killed, most of them civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, AFP reported.

The daily toll, from the British-based monitoring group, included 61 civilians, 28 government troops and nine rebel fighters, as the country slipped further towards civil war.