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Air strikes on Aleppo amid calm in other parts of Syria

But by excluding the city of Aleppo, scene of the worst recent violence, the narrow truces were unlikely to resurrect a ceasefire and peace talks that have collapsed this week.

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On other fronts, fighting halted at 1am yesterday (2200 GMT Friday) in a “freeze” set to last for 24 hours in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta, and 72 hours in Latakia.

Bebars Mishal told Reuters there were a number of air attacks in the morning, many around mosques in rebel territory.

Aleppo has been divided between the government forces and militants since 2012, a year after the conflict broke out in the Arab country. Shelling carried out by rebels on the wartorn city killed 96, including 21 children, in the same period.

The clinic, which had been providing dental services and treatment for chronic illnesses for about five years, was badly damaged.

No deaths were reported after the attacks but at least ten civilians died in separate strikes in the Bustan Qaser neighbourhood.

“For the moment, this is what we have to go forward with, but we are working constantly on Aleppo and other areas”, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under guidelines imposed by the State Department.

Friday’s attacks on the medical centers came after government airstrikes damaged a main hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders late Wednesday, killing more than 50 people, according to the worldwide aid group.

USA intelligence and outside experts tracking combatant movements acknowledge that Nusra and rebel forces are intertwined in areas in and around Aleppo, but they discount Russian claims that the militants are either “massing” or planning a new offensive. The hospital was supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee for the Red Cross, which also condemned the strike.

United Nations rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Friday slammed world powers backing opposing sides in Syria, saying the renewed violence showed a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives”.

But in Aleppo on Thursday, fighting between rebels and regime forces killed 53 civilians – the highest toll for a single day in a week of violence that has cost more than 200 lives, according to a monitor.

According to Bibars Mish’al, a first responder with the Aleppo branch of the Syrian Civil Defense, airstrikes struck al-Quds Hospital, which is supported by the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), at 10 p.m. on April 27.

In February, the United States and Russian Federation brokered a partial truce in Syria between regime forces and non-jihadist rebels.

Some families have fled to safer districts, while others left by the unsafe Castello road, the only route out of near-besieged east Aleppo.

The Syrian Civil Defence force, whose volunteer emergency response workers are known as the “white helmets”, said that among the sites targeted by warplanes was a clinic in the Marja area.

In the wake of Wednesday’s air strike, Medicins San Frontiers spoke out on social media stating it was “outraged” by the attack, adding that hospitals “are not a target”.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss “keeping and reinforcing” the broader cease-fire, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

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Contested Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once commercial center, has been the scene of intense shelling and air raids over the past nine days that killed almost 250 people according to the Observatory.

Assad’s focus is still firmly on Aleppo