Rocket attacks kill at least 30 in Syria’s Aleppo

As the countrywide ceasefire expired Friday, the Syrian military announced on Saturday that it would extend the cessation of hostilities for an extra 72 hours until midnight on July 12.

The Syrian government uses the term “regime of calm” to denote a temporary ceasefire.

The Syrian army had on Wednesday announced a countrywide, 72-hour truce. But violence and airstrikes have often continued regardless of those declarations.

Syrian government forces took a step toward completely encircling rebel-held parts of Aleppo on Thursday, capturing ground overlooking the only road into the opposition half of the city and effectively putting those areas under siege.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, said that at least three civilians had died in regime air strikes there.

Maydaa served as a supply line to the militant-held East Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, starting with peaceful protests that swiftly escalated into an armed rebellion increasingly dominated by jihadist groups. Al-Qaeda clearly isn’t giving up, and will likely push for more counterattacks against the military to reclaim the road.

“I worry that the Castello Road will be cut for a long time, it will lead to shortages of bread and other necessities”, said Ahmed Kanjou, an unemployed father of four.

Rebel Nour al-Din Zinky group said on its Facebook page that government warplanes and artillery shelled the Mallah farms close to the road. Government troops have advanced to within 1km of the Castello Road, and rebels say no-one can get in or out.

The airstrikes had severely damaged a number of homes in the area, he said, going on to note that Aleppo’s opposition-held Haritan and Anadan areas had also been targeted. It was the last rebel-held bit of territory before the rebel-held town of Dumeir to the east, from which it was separated by a stretch of government-controlled land.

In the wake of the government advance, rebel forces on Friday retaliated with waves of rocket fire into the regime-held west of Aleppo, killing 45 people, according to Syria s state news agency SANA.