Syrian forces shelled rebel-controlled zones of Aleppo before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 19 people, as rebels also attacked a military airport in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Several blasts were heard in the Jubar district of the capital Damascus as it came under heavy bombardment, and explosions were also heard in the Yalda area just south of the city, the Britain-based watchdog said.
Ten civilians were killed in Aleppo’s neighbourhood of Bustan al-Qasr while a total of nine bodies, including seven children, were found in the Marjeh and Hanano neighbourhoods, it said.
“Several people were also wounded, some of them seriously,” it said.
Activists have reported relentless bombardments and food shortages in rebel-held neighbourhoods of the country’s commercial capital, while a reporter who was in the northern city on Tuesday said life in the loyalist-controlled central area was relatively normal.
On Wednesday rebels also attacked Hamdan military airport in the town of Albu Kamal in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border, the Observatory said.