Syria conflict: Warplanes set rebel-held Aleppo ablaze

Rebel-held areas of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo saw the heaviest air strikes in months overnight, activists said, as a week-old truce collapsed.

An AFP news agency journalist reported that his entire street in the Bustan al-Qasr district was left burning after warplanes dropped incendiary bombs.

At least 13 people, including women and children, are believed to have died.

Fighting also erupted in the southern district, where rebels are attempting to break a siege by government forces.

BBC added that Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial and industrial hub, has been divided roughly in two since 2012, with the government controlling the west and rebels the east.

Two million people are caught up in the battle for the city, and getting aid to them had been a key part of the cessation of hostilities deal brokered by the United States and Russia. However, no deliveries have taken place so far.

A deadly attack on an aid convoy and Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse outside Aleppo on Monday, for which Washington and Moscow have blamed each other, prompted the UN to temporarily suspend deliveries across the country.

But following the pause a convoy on Thursday entered Muadhamiya, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, where some 40,000 people are living under siege, the UN tweeted.

A spokesman hoped the UN could reach Aleppo “in the near future”.

Two million people are caught up in the battle for the city, and getting aid to them had been a key part of the cessation of hostilities deal brokered by the United States and Russia. However, no deliveries have taken place so far.

A deadly attack on an aid convoy and Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse outside Aleppo on Monday, for which Washington and Moscow have blamed each other, prompted the UN to temporarily suspend deliveries across the country.

But following the pause a convoy on Thursday entered Muadhamiya, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, where some 40,000 people are living under siege, the UN tweeted.

A spokesman hoped the UN could reach Aleppo “in the near future”.

The Syrian Observatory said the Amariya, Old City and Project 1070 areas also came under aerial attack, while rebel shells fell on government-controlled Bustan al-Zahra and Mashariqa.

Separately, the Observatory said 11 people had died and dozens were hurt in a suicide attack in the rebel-held village of Inkhil in southern Deraa province.

A key rebel figure and head of the Deraa provincial council, Yakoub al-Ammar, was among those killed, Syria’s opposition National Coalition said.