Dozens killed in Aleppo air raids
Air strikes in Syria's divided city of Aleppo have killed dozens of people, according to a monitor, as fighting intensifies across the country despite UN appeals for greater humanitarian access and the resumption of peace talks.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said that Syrian government helicopters targeted the al-Mashhad neighbourhood in the rebel-held half of the city, killing at least 18 people.
The Observatory added that the number of casualties was likely to rise due to the high number of people critically wounded.
Zouhir Al Shimale, an Aleppo-based journalist, said air strikes, including on a residential building, have killed at least 32 people over the past two days. Separately, at least 42 civilians were killed on Monday in Syrian government air strikes on al-Atareb, a city in the Aleppo province.
The latest attacks came amid a renewed international push to restart the stalled Syria political talks next month.
Speaking in Geneva yesterday, following a closed-door meeting with US and Russian officials, UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Washington and Moscow had been discussing ways to work towards the reintroduction of a ceasefire.
De Mistura told reporters that a third round of intra-Syrian peace talks is set for August. But the HNC's Atassi told Al Jazeera that de Misutra had said "nothing new", and that there was "no progress on the ground" to convince the opposition to return to the negotiating table.
More than 280,000 people have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed. lMore than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees displaced from their homeland, while more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced within the country's borders.
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