Clashes shake Aleppo as truce expires

Clashes and air strikes shook the Syrian city of Aleppo, a monitor said yesterday, as heavy fighting resumed after the end of three-day truce declared by government ally Russia.

The unilateral truce ended without any evacuations by the UN, which had hoped to bring wounded civilians out of the rebel-held east and deliver aid after weeks of government bombardment and a three-month siege.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy clashes overnight in several areas along the front line that divides the government-held west from the east.

The Britain-based monitor also reported the first air strikes since Moscow announced a temporary halt in the Syrian army's Russian-backed offensive to recapture the east of the city.

It said at least three people were wounded in artillery fire on the east of the city, while rebels fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells on the government-held neighbourhood of Hamdaniyeh.

By yesterday morning, the city was quiet, but it was unclear if there would be any renewal of the truce, which Moscow and Damascus said was intended to allow civilians and rebels to leave the east.

France's foreign minister yesterday urged the international community to "do everything" to end the "massacre" in Aleppo.

The army had opened eight corridors from Aleppo's east, but only a handful of civilians were reported to have crossed through a single passage, with the rest remaining deserted.

Russian officials and Syrian state media accused rebels of preventing people from leaving and using civilians as "human shields".

Nearly 500 people have been killed and more then 2,000 wounded since the Syrian army launched a September 22 operation to recapture eastern Aleppo.