ALEPPO, Syria: Rebel and regime bombardment in Syria’s Aleppo on Sunday killed at least 14 civilians, emergency workers and a monitor said, on the third day of renewed violence in the battered city.
Rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the northern city killed six civilians, including a woman and two children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
And a barrage of government air strikes that began around midday on Sunday left at least eight civilians dead.
The strikes killed five people in a fruit and vegetable market in the neighbourhood of Sakhur, said a member of Aleppo’s civil defence.
Regime aerial bombardment left two civilians dead in the district of Shaar and another in Bab al-Nayrab, the source added.
Since a partial truce came into force in Syria on February 27, Aleppo city has seen a dramatic drop in air strikes and rocket fire.
But government planes launched an intense campaign over the city on Friday, killing 25 civilians that day and another 12 on Saturday.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the escalating violence in Aleppo and elsewhere meant the ceasefire had effectively collapsed.
In rebel-held neighbourhoods on Sunday, strained field hospitals were calling for immediate donations of blood to respond to the emergency needs.
Opposition-run schools announced on Saturday they would shut indefinitely in fear of air strikes.
A coalition of rebel groups in Aleppo province on Saturday evening said if the regime did not halt its attacks, “we will fully disengage from the truce”.
The online statement, published in Arabic, said the international community had 24 hours to put pressure on Damascus before rebels would respond to the regime’s “aggression”.
More than 270,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Aleppo city, once Syria’s commercial hub, split into rebel- and regime-controlled halves in 2012.
