SYRIAN government forces have captured strategic high ground in embattled Aleppo as Russia – a key ally of president Bashar Assad – said it is not planning more "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting in the city's rebel-held districts.
The fighting in Aleppo came as air strikes hit towns in the north-western province of Idlib, killing at least 13 people, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.
They said the victims were killed in the towns of Kfar Takharim and Khan Sheikhoun, where a market was hit.
Fighting resumed in Aleppo over the weekend, following a lull announced by Moscow which was meant to allow rebels and civilians to leave the eastern districts. The rebels rejected the Russian offer, and no civilians left.
Government troops launched a fresh offensive and yesterday took the hilltop of Bazo on the southern edge of Aleppo, near military bases, and shelled the rebel neighbourhoods, according to opposition activists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Bazo was taken amid heavy bombardment. Both the Observatory and the Aleppo Media Centre, an activist collective, reported government shelling in eastern parts of the city.
A video released by the Syrian army showed tanks and cannons pounding rebel positions in the area. The state Sana news agency, meanwhile, said the rebels shelled government-held areas in western Aleppo, killing one person and wounding seven.
A pro-opposition media outlet circulated footage of a powerful and hard-line Islamist rebel coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah announcing that the campaign to break the government's siege of the city's east would begin "within hours".
Syrian troops have besieged rebel-held parts of Aleppo for weeks, subjecting the districts to some of the worst air raids since a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia collapsed on September 19.
Opposition activists say more than 600 people have been killed in Aleppo and nearby villages since then.
Jaish al-Fatah commander Ali Abu Odai al-Aloush said "zero hour has drawn near," and that his militants had begun moving towards Aleppo. It was unclear when the interview was recorded.
A spokesman for the Nour el-Din al-Zinki rebel faction in Aleppo said an operation to break the government's siege of the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo is "coming".
The spokesman, Yasser al-Yousef, said the rebels would not intentionally target civilians in Aleppo's government-held districts, but warned of collateral damage from the anticipated operations.
In Moscow, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia was not planning another humanitarian pause in Aleppo any time soon.
"In order to resume it, our opponents need to make sure the anti-government groups behave properly," he said, blaming the rebels for the fact that medical evacuations from eastern Aleppo, planned during the pause, were scrapped at the last moment.
Mr Ryabkov said: "What needed to happen didn't happen... that's why resuming a humanitarian pause is not on the agenda."
He also said that Moscow does not expect any new round of Syria peace talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne until after the US elections.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for an end of the "massive bombing raids" by Russia and Syrian government forces in Aleppo to allow for the delivery of aid to beleaguered populations and the resumption of peace efforts in Syria.
Speaking during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara, Mr Ayrault said: "It's the only way that humanitarian aid can reach populations that really need it; it's the only way that the negotiations can resume."
Mr Ayrault added that there cannot be a "lasting peace" in Syria "outside of a political solution".
