Unidentified jets yesterday bombed rebel-held areas in Aleppo, a day after the end of a temporary truce announced by Russia for the divided northern city, a monitoring group reported.
The warplanes hit opposition neighbourhoods on the western outskirts of Aleppo, killing four civilians, including a child, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
Regime forces, meanwhile, shelled the rebel-controlled districts of Dahiyat al-Assad and the 1070 Apartment Project in the south-western parts of Aleppo, the Observatory said, without giving a figure on potential casualties.
Opposition forces captured the two districts in a major attack they started on October 28, aimed at breaking a government siege on the rebel-held enclave of eastern Aleppo.
At least 323 people, including 145 civilians, have since been killed in violence involving regime forces and rebels in Aleppo, the Observatory said.
A 10-hour ceasefire, announced by the Syrian regime and allied Russia, went into effect in Aleppo on Friday with the aim of encouraging rebel fighters and civilians to leave eastern Aleppo.
Opposition fighters rejected the ceasefire and vowed to continue fighting to break the government siege, which has been in place since July, on their eastern enclave in the war-torn city.
Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided into the government-controlled west and rebel-held east since fighting erupted for control of the city in mid-2012.
An estimated 300,000 people are under the government blockade in the eastern part of Aleppo, where residents report declining or disrupted supplies of basic necessities, including food, water, electricity and medicine.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s military hit 71 Islamic State targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, the army said yesterday, intensifying strikes against the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for the latest bomb attack in southeast Turkey.
Five Islamic State fighters were killed in the strikes, as were five Turkey-backed rebels and one Turkish soldier, the army said in its statement.
It said coalition forces conducted five air strikes, killing another eight Islamic State militants.
Turkey is backing a group of Syrian Arabs and Turkmen in northern Syria in its Euphrates Shield operation, which has swept Islamic State from its southern border.
The militant group has claimed responsibility for a car bomb in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir on Friday that killed nine people and wounded more than 100.