Regime forces launch Aleppo ground attack

Syria's army took control of a rebel-held district in central Aleppo yesterday, after days of heavy air strikes that have killed dozens and sparked allegations of war crimes.

In the first advance since announcing plans last week to retake all of the divided city, pro-government troops seized the Farafina district northwest of Aleppo's historic citadel, a military source told AFP.

The push follows several days of Syrian and Russian air strikes on rebel-held Aleppo neighbourhoods -- some of the fiercest bombardment of the five-year conflict so far -- after a ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington collapsed last week.

The Aleppo maelstrom prompted Western powers to accuse Russia of committing possible war crimes, charges the Kremlin condemned as "unacceptable".

In the latest broadside, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also condemned the air campaign.

"The appalling attacks on Aleppo have shaken all of us, and the violence and the attacks we have seen... is morally totally unacceptable and is a blatant violation of international law," Stoltenberg told a news conference in Bratislava.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor, said that more than 155 people have been killed by Russian and regime bombardment on Aleppo city since the government announced its offensive last week.

They include 11 civilians killed in raids yesterday on the neighbourhoods of Al-Shaar and Al-Mashhad, according to the Britain-based group.

As well as the intensified violence, residents have been left reeling from food shortages and skyrocketing prices.

Analysts yesterday said that the unprecedented ferocity with which Aleppo has been hit in recent days suggested that Moscow was backing the Syrian government's aim to totally recapture the city.

"Russia has decided to go all out because it no longer believes in the possibility of collaborating with the United States in Syria," said Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.