Syrian rebel shelling of a school in government-held western Aleppo killed at least seven children on Sunday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.
UN deputy Syria envoy Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy on Sunday invited Damascus to new peace talks with the opposition at the end of August, drawing a positive response from the government.
UN-brokered talks aimed at ending Syria's brutal conflict will push ahead until April 27, despite the departure of the main opposition group, a negotiator in the talks said on Friday.
The Syrian conflict has set the stage globally for the Islamic State group to spread like cancer or Ebola, the UN chief and the top UN Syria envoy said Friday.
The United Nations Syria envoy expects a staggered start to peace talks next week, with participants arriving over several days for "indirect meetings", he said in an interview with pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat.
