Syrian troops have intensified their shelling of opposition-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs as living conditions there deteriorate further, according to opposition activists.
The neighborhoods of Jouret al-Shayyah, the Old Ciy, al-Khalidiyeh and al-Hamidiyeh have been under intense shelling and ground attacks for a week.
Activist Abu Bilal in the Old City said on Sunday that the regime's siege of several parts of Homs was "suffocating".
"They are shelling us all the time. There's very little food and water, and we're running out of medication," he said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network, said the shelling killed at least one person on Sunday.
The SOHR urged the UN to intervene and evacuate more than 1,000 Homs families, including women and children. It says their lives are in danger.
The latest shelling comes a day after UN observers suspended their patrols in Syria due to a recent spike in violence.
About 300 observers are deployed in Syria, entrusted with monitoring a ceasefire and supporting the full implementation of a six-point peace plan drafted by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, which was supposed to lead to talks between the two sides.
However, hundreds of people have been killed since the first observers were deployed in April and the mission has been harshly criticized by the opposition.
Activists said that more than 50 people were killed on Saturday alone in clashes and shelling in towns close to Damascus, in the central provinces of Homs and Hama, in the seaside province of Latakia, the northern provinces of Idlib and Deir az Zour and the southern province of Daraa.
The National Co-ordination Committee (NCC), one of Syria's main opposition factions, expressed regret over the suspension and called for the supervision mission to strengthen its security apparatus and resume operations.
Mahmoud Morei, the NCC head, said the Syrian government should shoulder the majority of responsibility for the intensifying violence. He suggested that the government should first stop using violence because it has not resolved the problem over the past 10 months.
On the contrary, it had deepened the crisis, he said.
"We demand the Syrian authorities to stop all violence right away, even it is an unilateral ceasefire in order to seek a way out from the crisis," Morei said.
Activist say more than 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
PHOTO CAPTION
Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Binsh near Idlib June 15, 2012.
Al-Jazeera