The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels fired more than 300 shells at western, government-held neighbourhoods in response to government advances towards the Castello Road.
Advertisement
The key supply route was effectively severed on Thursday when troops and allied militiamen took control of a nearby hilltop, putting them within firing range.
Large parts of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial and industrial hub, have been destroyed since fighting erupted there in 2012.
It has been a focal point of clashes between the Syrian army and the rebels.
Intensified fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels north of Aleppo has completely cut off access for humanitarian aid deliveries into the rebel-held part of the contested city, a United Nations spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Also in northern Syria on Monday, government air raids hit a diesel fuel market, killing at least eight people there, including a media activist, and setting several tanker trucks on fire, opposition activists said.
Air raids on the rebel-held parts of Aleppo killed 13 civilians Monday, the Observatory added, majority in the Bab al-Maqam neighbourhood near the front line. “The fight for Castello will continue, and our forces are preparing heavy attacks on the pro-Assad troops there”, rebel spokesman Saleh al-Zein told ARA News in Aleppo earlier on Monday. But groups fighting under the banner of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) say they control the rebel-held part of the city.
Another aim is to ensure the security of government-controlled areas and to prevent the militant groups from blocking the main road connecting Aleppo with the Syrian coast and other provinces in central and southern Syria.
The failed bid to push government forces back from the road killed at least 29 rebel fighters, said the Observatory.
More than 60 civilians were killed by shelling and air strikes in the northwest of Syria on Friday, a monitoring group said, hours before the end of a shaky ceasefire for the Eidul Fitr holiday.
More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
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.
Advertisement
Fighting and aerial bombardment has not subsided in most areas, despite it being the second day of the truce announced by the Syrian regime.
