Air strikes kill 22 in Syria’s Idlib province during ceasefire – monitor

Yasser al-Tayeb, a spokesman for the Army of Islam group, said clashes with pro-government forces have not let up.

The only road into rebel-held Aleppo has been cut off by Syrian regime forces, despite an announcement by the Syrian military of a three-day nationwide truce.

At least 25 civilians including four children were killed and 120 others wounded on Friday in rebel shelling of regime-held districts of Syria’s Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rebel fire on the government-held Sayf al Dawla neighbourhood meanwhile killed five people, including a child, the monitor said.

Activists and state media are reporting continued violence around Syria, despite a day old truce, including a government offensive on a rebel-held supply line in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Syrian army said Wednesday it was observing a 72-hour ceasefire across the country, coinciding with the festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Despite declaring a unilateral 72-hour “regime of calm” covering all of Syria from 1 p.m. on Wednesday, which opposition groups welcomed, Syrian regime violated the cease-fire dozens of times in several areas of the war-torn country.

“Syrian regime forces with Russian firepower in recent weeks have intensified their efforts to isolate and encircle opposition forces in Aleppo”, said the US official.

Pro-government forces are pressing on with their ground offensive on Mayda, in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, which they launched on Tuesday, al-Tayeb said.

The Observatory estimates that 250,000 -300,000 people live in opposition-held parts of Aleppo.

“This is a fake ceasefire”, said Mahmoud al-Shami, an activist based in Aleppo.

The Eid truce was the first to be declared across Syria since the one brokered in February by worldwide diplomats to facilitate talks to end the five-year-old civil war.

Syrian regime forces have been trying for months to recapture the strategic route. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government considers all armed opposition to be terrorists. The Aleppo area has been a major theatre in the conflict.

To the northeast, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters advanced on Thursday inside a key town held by the Islamic State group, the Observatory said.

The White House said the two leaders had “confirmed their commitment to defeating ISIL and the al-Nusra Front”.

Some of the FSA groups have received military support from Assad’s foreign enemies, including Turkey and the United States.