A Syrian government soldier rides a military vehicle near a mosque, after taking control of Aleppo's Al-Haidariya neighbourhood, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on November 28, 2016. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rescue workers said more than 45 people had been killed in artillery bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 50,000 people had been displaced by the fighting.

The Civil Defense said in a message posted on its Telegram account that dozens more people had been wounded in the artillery attack it said had hit people displaced from eastern Aleppo. Most of the dead were women and children, it said.

The Observatory’s toll of 50,000 displaced was more than double a figure of 20,000 given by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday. </s> BEIRUT | At least 21 civilians were killed in a wave of artillery fire in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning that struck a neighborhood crowded with people displaced from other parts of the city.

It was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood, in the rebel-held eastern side of the city, was struck in as many days. An airstrike blamed by activists on the government killed 25 civilians Tuesday.

Meanwhile, eight civilians, including two children, were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media. The government blamed rebels for the attack.

This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Civil Defense workers pass by bodies after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP) This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian boy sittiing next to bodies after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP) This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Civil Defense workers carrying a victim on a stretcher after artillery fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 21 people have been killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those displaced in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

Many of the victims in Jub al-Quba died in the streets, with their belongings packed in bags by their sides, photos showed. Jawad al-Rifai, who took the pictures for the Aleppo Media Center, said they were civilians — mostly women and children — fleeing shelling and air strikes on other parts of the city.

The neighborhood and others around it in Aleppo’s centrally-located old city have absorbed thousands of residents displaced by the advance of government troops in the east.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher living in the Zabadieh neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, said refugees were filling up apartment buildings long abandoned because of the war.

“They are every now and then knocking on my door asking for simple things, like spoons, cups, plates, some salt,” as well as medicine, he told reporters using a messaging service.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria through a network of local contacts, said tens more were wounded in Jub al-Quba.

Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo, also known as the White Helmets, put the toll at 45 killed. It blamed the government for the strikes.

Rescue efforts by the group were hampered by the lack of functioning machinery, said Rifai.

“Most of their equipment is out of service because of the targeting against their quarters,” he added.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel, operated by Hezbollah, reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city’s rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday.

Syrian state media announced midday Wednesday that its forces had retaken the southern Sheikh Saeed neighborhood, while the Observatory said rebels still held onto a third of the area. The Observatory added that Iraqi militia fighters were playing a central role in the government’s advance from the south. </s> BEIRUT — A barrage of artillery fire struck a housing area for displaced residents in rebel-held eastern Aleppo today, killing at least 21 civilians, activists said, as another eight civilians were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the war-torn country, said it was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood in eastern Aleppo was struck in as many days. An airstrike killed 25 civilians Tuesday. Thousands of east Aleppo residents have moved to Jub al-Quba and other such neighborhoods fleeing a government advance on the rebel-held east.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo put the toll at 45 killed. Images published by the Civil Defense showed bodies strewn on a debris-filled road in an attack they It blamed on government forces.

Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

Syrian state media said two children were among the eight killed in shelling on the city's western neighborhoods, which it blamed on the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city's rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday. </s> BEIRUT — A barrage of artillery fire struck a housing area for displaced residents in rebel-held eastern Aleppo Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, activists said, as another eight civilians were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the war-torn country, said it was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood in eastern Aleppo was struck in as many days. An airstrike killed 25 civilians Tuesday. Thousands of east Aleppo residents have moved to Jub al-Quba and other such neighborhoods fleeing a government advance on the rebel-held east.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo put the toll at 45 killed. Images published by the Civil Defense showed bodies strewn on a debris-filled road in an attack they It blamed on government forces.

Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

Syrian state media said two children were among the eight killed in shelling on the city's western neighborhoods, which it blamed on the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city's rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition activists are reporting heavy bombardment of besieged rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo saying at least six people have been killed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian government warplanes and artillery struck more than 20 neighborhoods in east Aleppo killing six people.

The Aleppo Media Council, an activist collective, said 15 people, including children, were killed in Saturday’s violence in the country’s largest city and former commercial center.

Saturday was the fourth day of renewed assaults by Syrian warplanes on eastern Aleppo districts, a rebel-held enclave of 275,000 people. The onslaught began Tuesday, when Syria’s ally Russia announced its own offensive on the northern rebel-controlled Idlib province and Homs province in central Syria. </s> At least 49 people have been killed in heavy government air strikes in the eastern part of Syria's largest city, Aleppo, witnesses and activists say.

The overnight bombardment, which began late on Thursday, was part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and its allies against opposition groups holed up in Aleppo.

With the latest victims, the total number of people killed in the besieged city since Bashar al-Assad's government launched its military offensive on Tuesday has climbed to 150.

Activist released dramatic video footage of a rescue operation involving a six-year-old child who was trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building.

READ MORE: In east Aleppo 'there is no way out'

The child survived after his residential neighbourhood was targeted with missiles and unguided explosive devices called barrel bombs.

Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said the bombardment was the fiercest of the past three days.

"The bombs struck areas on Aleppo's outskirts as well as in the city itself. The toll keeps mounting by the hour," he said.

"Rescuers are trying to help as many people as possible but because this is such a widespread area, they cannot get to every location."

On Sunday, the Syrian army sent a text message to residents of east Aleppo, demanding they leave areas held by opposition armed groups within 24 hours or risk their lives during a major offensive.

"Our dear people living in east Aleppo, the militants kill your children and take your women," read the text message, which declared the government's intent to retake opposition-controlled districts of the city.

About 250,000 people are believed to be living in besieged east Aleppo, and Syrian government forces have reversed recent gains made by the fighters last month in their effort to break the siege.

Humam al-Malah, a member of the Syrian Network for Human Rights in the Aleppo governorate, told Al Jazeera that humanitarian conditions are getting worse in east Aleppo.

"Electricity is always cut off; [there's a] high increase in prices; an acute lack of vegetable availability; fuel is almost non-existent in markets; and the quality and quantity of supply of bread is dwindling," said Malah.

Against this backdrop, Russia's foreign minister has flatly denied that his country's forces participated in the attacks on Aleppo this week.

Sergey Lavrov issued the denial while discussing the bombing of the city on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific trade summit in Lima, Peru.

Russia is a crucial ally of the Syrian government and its military has been targeting Syrian opposition fighters with air strikes and cruise missiles.

Lavrov portrayed the recent strikes in Syria as "limited".

"Our air force and the Syrian air force only work in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, to prevent ISIL who might be leaving Mosul from getting to Syria," he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, also known as ISIS.

Artillery shelling

Elsewhere in Syria, in Ghouta in the Damascus countryside, at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured in air strikes and artillery shelling by government forces.

Residents reported substantial damage to residential areas in the town.

Also in the Damascus countryside, the Syrian government targeted an international relief agency and Palestinian refugee camp in Khan Sheha, which has been under siege for two months now.

Syrian forces and opposition fighters fought around the camp on Thursday night. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — At least 21 civilians were killed in a wave of artillery fire in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning that struck a neighborhood crowded with people displaced from other parts of the city.

It was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood, in the rebel-held eastern side of the city, was struck in as many days. An airstrike blamed by activists on the government killed 25 civilians Tuesday.

Meanwhile, eight civilians, including two children, were killed in shelling on the government-held western side of the city, according to state media. The government blamed rebels for the attack.

Many of the victims in Jub al-Quba died in the streets, with their belongings packed in bags by their sides, photos showed. Jawad al-Rifai, who took the pictures for the Aleppo Media Center, said they were civilians — mostly women and children — fleeing shelling and air strikes on other parts of the city.

The neighborhood and others around it in Aleppo's centrally-located old city have absorbed thousands of residents displaced by the advance of government troops in the east.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher living in the Zabadieh neighborhood in eastern Aleppo, said refugees were filling up apartment buildings long abandoned because of the war.

"They are every now and then knocking on my door asking for simple things, like spoons, cups, plates, some salt," as well as medicine, he told reporters using a messaging service.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria through a network of local contacts, said tens more were wounded in Jub al-Quba.

Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density.

The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group operating in eastern Aleppo, also known as the White Helmets, put the toll at 45 killed. It blamed the government for the strikes.

Rescue efforts by the group were hampered by the lack of functioning machinery, said Rifai.

"Most of their equipment is out of service because of the targeting against their quarters," he added.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Aleppo as pro-government Syrian forces press on with their campaign to reclaim the divided city.

The Observatory said more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo over the past 4 days. Many of them fled to safer ground in areas under government or Kurdish control. The International Committee of the Red Cross says around 20,000 people have fled.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel, operated by Hezbollah, reported from the Aleppo countryside that pro-government forces were advancing in the southern portion of the city's rebel enclave. The government has seized much of the northern half of the enclave in a swift advance that began Saturday.

Syrian state media announced midday Wednesday that its forces had retaken the southern Sheikh Saeed neighborhood, while the Observatory said rebels still held onto a third of the area. The Observatory added that Iraqi militia fighters were playing a central role in the government's advance from the south. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebel shelling killed eight children at a school in the government-held part of Aleppo on Sunday and a barrel bomb killed a family of six in the rebel-held area, part of a heavy government bombardment that has knocked out all the hospitals.

Hundreds of people have been killed since Tuesday in a concerted push by the government and its allies to quash resistance in the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo to reestablish control over Syria’s biggest pre-war city.

On Sunday they advanced into the Hanano district on its northern edge, but rebels said the battle was still continuing and that some of the pro-government forces’ gains had been reversed.

The bombardment, one of the most intense in the almost six year-old civil war, has taken a heavy toll on civilians.

Two medics said the al-Baytounji family had suffocated to death because the barrel bomb, which fell in the Sakhour district at about midnight, had been laced with chlorine gas.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, confirmed the bombing but could not confirm that chlorine gas was used. Damascus has denied use of the gas, which would contravene the international Chemical Weapons Convention.

Rebel shelling killed at least eight children, aged from six to 12 years, among 10 deaths in the Saria Hasoun school in al-Farqan district, the Observatory and Syrian state television reported.

The bombardment of eastern Aleppo drew condemnation on Sunday from the EU’s humanitarian aid commissioner, Christos Stylianides.

“The relentless bombing of East Aleppo by the Syrian regime in the last few days has now left hundreds of thousands of besieged civilians without access to food and to functioning hospitals,” he said.

An official with a rebel group based in east Aleppo said there were still no working hospitals there on Sunday, a day after the World Health Organization reported that bombing had put them all out of action.

Hospitals have previously been brought back into service after being knocked out through bombing in the rebel-held area but food supplies are running low.

The military and Russia’s air force had paused their bombardment of eastern Aleppo, except for on the frontlines, for two weeks after a month-long offensive from late September to late October, but recommenced strikes on Tuesday.

The army and its allies began some ground attacks on Friday. The Observatory reported intense clashes in Sheikh Saeed in southeast Aleppo and in Baeedain and Bustan al-Basha in northeast Aleppo.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, one of the army’s main allies in the fighting, said on Sunday that the army and its allies had advanced in Hanano and pro-government forces were bringing big reinforcements to the city. The Observatory confirmed the Hanano advance.

TALKS

An inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said Syrian government forces have used chlorine gas in barrel bombs at least three times during the war. Damascus denies it.

Syria also denies using barrel bombs - improvised ordnance made by oil drums filled with high explosive and shrapnel and dropped from helicopters. Their use has been condemned by the United Nations for causing unnecessary suffering.

Air strikes continued to hit several districts of eastern Aleppo early on Sunday, the Observatory said, after at least 54 people were killed in bombing on Saturday.

People walk near rubble of damaged buildings, in the rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria November 19, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

So far, around 240 people have been killed in bombing in eastern Aleppo and the rebel-held countryside to the west of the city since Tuesday, it added.

Staffan De Mistura, the envoy of the United Nations secretary general, met Syrian Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday and later acknowledged differences.

He said he had proposed that Damascus should recognize the local administration in rebel-held east Aleppo if jihadist fighters left the city, but Foreign Minister Walid al-Moalem rejected this in a televised news conference.

An elected city council there oversees services and De Mistura said that while he recognized the government’s need to maintain sovereignty, Aleppo should be treated as a special case.

Moalem said that the arrangement was intended by rebel groups to control distribution of food and that they were holding the civilians of eastern Aleppo hostage.

Asked about Damascus’ expectations from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, he said it wanted him to stop arming rebel groups and to curb regional powers who also did so.

Speaking to journalists separately, De Mistura condemned attacks on hospitals in both rebel and government-held areas. “We should be allowed to send a verification team to verify the damage in hospitals in eastern and western Aleppo,” he said.

The two medics identified the family they said was killed by chlorine in a film distributed online. It showed the corpses of four children stretched out on a floor, their lips blue and dark marks around their open eyes.

One of the medics, Abu al-Abbas, has a colleague who lives on the same street, he said. Another was the manager of a hospital and said doctors had confirmed the cause of their death as gas poisoning. A rebel official, Zakaria al-Malahifji, from the Fastaqim group, also said they had been killed by gas.

Medics and residents in rebel-held areas have often accused the Syrian military of using chlorine in barrel bomb attacks on their areas, but the difficulty of reaching besieged districts makes it hard for international agencies to verify this.

Slideshow (4 Images)

Syria and Russia have also accused the rebels of using toxic gas in shells, including during a major assault on the western fringe of the government-held zone in Aleppo early this month.

The civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia’s air force, Iran and Shi’ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels including groups supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies.

Aleppo has become the focal point, as the army and its allies alternate intense bombardment and ground attacks with offers to rebels to quit the city during periods of reduced bombing.

The use of siege and bombardment tactics has previously forced rebels to surrender other encircled areas such as the large town of Daraya southeast of Damascus, seen for years as a stronghold of the rising against Assad. </s> (CNN) More than 1,000 people have died in airstrikes and shelling in the Syrian city of Aleppo since a short-lived ceasefire broke down 60 days ago, according to a UK-based monitoring group.

The figure includes deaths in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, in government-controlled western Aleppo and in the surrounding countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.

The group's tally comes as Russian-backed Syrian government forces once again pummel eastern Aleppo.

The weeklong ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia collapsed in the early hours of September 19 , according to the observatory.

Of the 1,086 dead the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented across the city since then, 231 were children and 98 were women.

The highest number of deaths occurred in eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, where airstrikes by Russian and regime planes killed 509 people, the monitoring group said. Artillery shelling was responsible for another 47 deaths.

Russian and government airstrikes killed 300 people, including 70 children and 34 women, in Aleppo's countryside, the group said.

Shelling by rebel factions killed another 225 people, including 59 children and 32 women, in regime-held western neighborhoods, it said.

More than 4,000 people were injured on both sides of the war-torn northern city over the same period, the group said.

The Aleppo Media Center activist group and medical crews reported that 46 people were killed and 75 injured Friday in airstrikes and shelling in the city and surrounding countryside, with the activists describing the fighting as one of the bloodiest days yet.

Syrian jets dropped cluster bombs on the eastern Aleppo neighborhoods of al-Sukari and al-Fardous, the Aleppo Media Center said. It also reported artillery shelling there and in two other neighborhoods.

An activist in Binnish, in Syria's northeastern Idlib province, said Russian and Syrian warplanes had bombarded half a dozen towns in Idlib since midnight.

Syria's state-run news agency SANA said "terrorist rocket attacks" Friday had killed five people and injured 17 in residential areas of western Aleppo.

Syria's grinding five-year conflict has devastated the city, divided between government-controlled areas in the west and rebel positions in the east.

The regime's siege of rebel-held neighborhoods has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe as food, water and medical supplies run low.

Rebels took control of eastern Aleppo in 2014, and government forces have besieged the area, battering it from above with the help of Russian air power. The government says the rebels are terrorists who must be driven out.

Moscow has sought to distance itself from the latest blitz, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying Wednesday that the Russian air force had not carried out the Aleppo strikes, according to state-run news agency Tass.
Syrian Civil Defense claim that more than 45 people have died as a result of heavy artillery bombardment of eastern Aleppo.