Activists say airstrikes in northern Syria kill more than 20

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), an opposition group, said it will honour the ceasefire.

Residents walk past damaged buildings in the rebel held area of Aleppo’s Bab al-Hadeed district, Syria, June 27, 2016.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll from Friday’s airstrikes at 23, including two children.

The shelling comes as a 72-hour nationwide ceasefire announced by the army to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan is due to end on Friday midnight.

Government forces effectively severed the route on Thursday when they seized a hilltop within firing range of the Castello Road.

Rebel fighters have launched several mortar attacks against two residential areas in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, killing over two dozen people and wounding more than 100 others.

After four years of fighting, the rebel-held part of Aleppo has been isolated for the first time from the rest of Syria and, most of all, from the western zone outside government control.

Meanwhile, rebel shelling into government-held parts of Syria’s second city Aleppo killed at least 38 civilians on Saturday, a war monitor said, as Syrian government forces continued their offensive to completely encircle rebel-held parts of the city. “We crossed the Castello Road very cautiously, without turning on the auto lights”, said Mohammad Yassin, a father of five.

The monitoring group said that civilians who were dead and injured had come to the riverside from various nearby towns to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

Military experts say the initial aim of the battles in Aleppo is to lay a siege on the rebel-held areas and cut off their supply lines to force a surrender. Government advances were also reported in Daraya, a besieged opposition-held town overlooking Damascus airport, the opposition-operated Facebook account of the Local Council of Daraya reported.

Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year, has killed at least 250,000 people, displaced more than 6.6 million inside the country and forced another 4.8 million to flee, many seeking refuge in Europe.