Heavy bombardment on Friday killed at least 47 people, among them seven children, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
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But the head of a hospital in the rebel-held east told Reuters that 91 people had been killed in Friday’s bombardment.
Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo on Saturday, tightening their siege on opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city as an ongoing wave of airstrikes destroyed more buildings.
Residents and activists described the use of a missile that produced earthquake-like tremors upon impact and razed buildings right down to the basement level where many residents desperately seek protection during bombing.
Intensified bombings on the Syrian city of Aleppo have left at least two million persons without water, the United Nations said.
Russian warplanes were carrying out strikes alongside Syrian aircraft, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Damascus announced the launch of the new operation to take the city Thursday, with officials saying that the bombardment of rebel-held areas was in preparation for a ground offensive. In response, another water station that supplied drinking water to the rest of Aleppo was turned off.
He said the bombing targeted two civil defence centres, putting one out of service.
The government already controls the city’s western half, where fewer people have fled.
At the United Nations on Saturday, Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, said the army was “making great strides in its war against terrorism”, thanks to support from Russia, Iran and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
The Syrian army says it is determined to retake rebel-held areas in Aleppo, after a ceasefire collapsed on Monday.
Aleppo has recently come under intense attacks by regime and Russian forces.
“If people are serious about wanting a peaceful outcome to this war, then they should cease and desist bombing innocent women and children, cease cutting off water and laying siege to an entire community, and work with the global community in order to be able to bring peace to people who are starving”.
A Syrian military source told Reuters the operation announced late on Thursday was continuing according to plan.
Rebel-held districts in east Aleppo came under intense air and artillery fire for a fifth night as the army prepared a ground offensive to recapture the entire divided city.
A pro-government Iraqi militia commander in Aleppo said the aim was to capture all of Aleppo within a week.
Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and envoys from the other 21 nations of the International Syria Support Group are in NY for the UN General Assembly.
Russian Federation and the United States also failed to reach an agreement on the Syria crisis at a high-level meeting in NY on September 22.
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Mr Lavrov had sought a three-day pause in fighting to revive the ceasefire but USA officials said there was no point returning to a situation in which rebels would be pressed to hold fire, while the Syrian and Russian military could violate the agreement.
