BEIRUT — Nearly 30 airstrikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday as government forces try to wrest control of the city; meanwhile, a temporary “calm” declared by Syria’s military took effect around Damascus and in the northwest.
It was the ninth day of deadly bombardments in Aleppo, which has borne the brunt of increased fighting that has all but destroyed a February cease-fire and killed nearly 250 people since April 22, a monitoring group said.
The government’s campaign in Aleppo also contributed to the breakup of peace talks in Geneva, which the main opposition walked out of last week.
The Syrian army announced a “regime of calm,” or lull in fighting, late Friday, which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government said was designed to salvage the wider cease-fire.
While that appeared to mostly hold in and around the capital and parts of northwest coastal province Latakia, the bombing continued in Aleppo, which was excluded from the plan.
Anas al-Abde, president of the Turkey-based opposition Syrian National Coalition, accused the government of violating the February truce “daily.” The opposition was ready to reinstate the wider truce, but reserved the right to respond with force to attacks, he said.
Both sides have accused each other of truce violations.
The Syrian army did not explain in any detail what military or non-military action the “regime of calm” would entail. It said it would last for 24 hours in the capital Damascus and its suburb Eastern Ghouta and for 72 hours in rural areas around the northern city of Latakia.
At least five people were killed in Aleppo early on Saturday in airstrikes believed to have been carried out by Syrian government warplanes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, has been divided for years between rebel- and government-held zones. Full control would be a huge prize for the Assad regime.
Of the 250 casualties since April 22, 140 were killed in bombardments by government-aligned forces and 96 by rebel shelling. Forty children were among the dead, according to the observatory’s tally.
The United Nations has called on Moscow and Washington to help restore the cease-fire to prevent the complete collapse of talks aimed at ending the five-year conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed and millions displaced.
