Activists say the Syrian army has killed at least 26 civilians in bombardments across the country.
They say 17 are dead in the flashpoint southern town of Deraa and six in the central city of Homs.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says nine women and three children were among the victims of a pre-dawn bombardment of a residential neighbourhood of Deraa.
The BBC reports dozens more were wounded, some of them seriously.
Deraa is the birthplace of the uprising against Syria's ruler Bashar al-Assad.
In Homs, government forces pounded several neighbourhoods with artillery and mortars in an attempt to regain control.
The fighting comes a day after United Nations monitors entered the village of Qubeir, where at least 78 people were massacred on Wednesday.
