Regime forces rained shells on rebel positions in northwestern Latakia province yesterday, pounding for the eighth straight day the town of Al-Haffe as they prepared to storm it, monitors said.

Pro-Syrian regime villagers yesterday prevented United Nations observers from reaching Al-Haffe where there are fears that a new massacre might be carried out, a watchdog said.

"Residents of the pro-regime village of As-Sheer blocked the road and prevented the UN observer team from reaching Al-Haffe," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said people "lay down on the road blocking access to the vehicles of the observers," who then began looking for another route into the town, in the northwestern province of Latakia.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops also pounded a neighborhood of the eastern city of Deir Ezzor with mortar fire yesterday, killing 10 civilians including a young girl, while five other civilians were killed in attacks on the central city of Homs.

"Regime forces are sending reinforcements and preparing an attack," on Al-Haffe, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

Abdel Rahman said that hundreds of rebel Free Syrian Army fighters are active in the area. According to the Britain-based Observatory troops used heavy artillery and helicopter gunships in their attacks on Al-Haffe.

On Monday, activists told AFP they feared a massacre would be committed if regime troops managed to enter the restive town.

Al-Haffe is considered strategic because of its proximity to Qardaha, President Bashar Assad’s hometown.

Syrian troops also stepped up attacks yesterday on the central city of Homs and its suburbs, pounding rebel positions, the Observatory said, adding that at least five civilians were killed. “The situation is horrific, murderous," an activist in Homs who identified himself as Abu Bilal told AFP via Skype.

Abu Bilal said 400 civilians — including women and children — were trapped in a school in the Jourat Al-Shiah neighborhood.

"There are no fighters there, but still it's being shelled," he said.

"We're scared of a big massacre. We've never seen so much shelling before," he said.

Earlier the Observatory said 10 civilians were killed yesterday when Syrian forces pounded a neighborhood of the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. The attack, which targeted the city's Al-Jbaible neighborhood, came a day after 12 people, including three children, were killed in a car bomb blast in Deir Ezzor's Al-Joura neighborhood, the watchdog said.

The United Arab Emirates yesterday renewed calls for its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon and Syria.

The UAE "once again calls on its citizens not to travel to Lebanon and Syria at this time, except under conditions of extreme urgency," the foreign ministry said, the official WAM news agency reported.