Clashes renewed on Friday between residents from the rival towns of Akroum and Beit Jaafar in the northern district of Akkar near the border with Syria, after a man was killed in previous fighting on Wednesday.

NBN television said the sounds of RPGs and medium weapons echoed across the area.

Syrian rebels on Friday captured three journalists who work for state television as they accompanied government troops operating near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

"Three Syrian journalists who work for state television were seized by rebels while they were on assignment, accompanying soldiers in al-Tal," just north of Damascus, the monitoring group said.

Syrian troops and rebels fought fierce battles on Friday in the city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds queued for bread, Agence France Presse reported.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces shot dead 115 civilians and rebels across the country.

The United States on Friday added Hizbullah to a list of organizations under sanctions for their ties to the Syrian regime.

"This action highlights Hizbullah's activities within Syria and its integral role in the continued violence the Assad regime is inflicting on the Syrian population," the U.S. Treasury Department charged in a statement.

Israeli deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon noted on Friday that the Arab world is passing through a phase that will restore it back to the way it was before World War I, reported Israel Radio.

He also predicted Syria’s fragmentation into provinces, adding that Lebanon will suffer the same fate in the future.

The United States plans new sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and its supporters in a bid to put further pressure on Damascus, a U.S. State Department official said Friday.

"...One of the key forms of pressure is economic sanctions, which in the coming days or very shortly we will be tightening further with additional sanctions (on) both Syrian entities and those who are supporting the efforts of the Syrian government to oppress its own people," the official said.

The conflict in Syria has caused a "severe internal displacement crisis" due to disrespect for international humanitarian laws, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of the displaced said on Thursday.

"The special rapporteur called upon all Syrian authorities and parties to the conflict to ensure respect for international law, including human rights and humanitarian law...and prevent conditions that may lead to further forced internal displacement of persons," a statement said.

Britain will give Syrian rebels £5 million in assistance including body armor and communications equipment for their fight against President Bashar Assad, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Friday.

Hague said Britain would not provide weapons but would step up its contacts with opposition groups, especially the Free Syrian Army, to lay the ground for a political solution if Assad falls.

More than 2,500 Syrians fled to Turkey overnight amid escalating clashes in Syria, a Turkish official told Agence France Presse on Friday.

The latest arrivals brought the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to some 53,000, said the official from the country's Disaster and Emergency Administration.

Syrian rebels vowed to fight on in Aleppo a day after being driven out of a key district under heavy shellfire, which was targeting other parts of the strategic city on Friday.

A rebel commander, Hossam Abu Mohammed, said his men were still fighting in parts of Aleppo's southwestern district of Salaheddin after most fled on Thursday under heavy bombing and advancing troops.