An offensive by Syrian insurgents aimed at the government-held part of the northern city of Aleppo has killed at least 74 civilians, including 25 children, an opposition monitoring group says.
The insurgents launched the assault eight days ago, hoping to break a months-long government siege on the rebel-held eastern part of the city, which has been subjected to months of devastating Syrian and Russian airstrikes.
The insurgents have seized a district on Aleppo's edge and a nearby village.
The Syrian military said the first three days of the rebel offensive killed more than 80 people. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different figures.
Rights groups and the UN have sharply criticised the rebels over the shelling of western Aleppo districts, which has killed a number of civilians. Such criticism had mainly been focused on the government and its allies, accusing them of indiscriminate shelling and air strikes on rebel-held areas.
Moscow declared a halt to air strikes on eastern Aleppo on October 18, but Syrian and Russian warplanes have continued to strike around the city's edges and in the surrounding province.
The strikes, which have hit a school and several medical facilities, have killed more than 400 civilians in less than a month and wounded more than 2000 people. The Observatory recorded three civilian deaths in rebel-held Aleppo districts in the past week.
On Friday, a renewed 10-hour Russian offer of a moratorium on air strikes expired. None of the estimated 275,000 residents of eastern Aleppo departed during the unilateral ceasefire, as they had been urged to do by Russia and the Syrian government.
The arrival of a Russian aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, and its heading to the Syrian coast suggests Moscow may intend to escalate its operations.
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