A 10-day air offensive by Syria's regime against rebel areas of Aleppo city and nearby villages has killed more than 400 people, including 117 children, a monitor group says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing campaign using barrels packed with TNT had killed 410 people by Tuesday.
The dead included 117 children and 34 women.
The UK-based group said the air force continued its assault for an 11th day on Wednesday, with fresh raids on the opposition-held district of Sakhur in eastern Aleppo city.
However it had no immediate information on fresh casualties.
Aleppo has been divided into regime and rebel-held enclaves since the opposition launched a massive offensive in July 2012.
Rights groups have blasted the regime's relentless air raids against Aleppo and its dropping of massively destructive barrel bombs in civilian areas.
Human Rights Watch has described the use of such weapons as "indiscriminate and therefore unlawful".
The US has condemned the regime's aerial assault on civilian areas of Aleppo, accusing the military of using barrel bombs and SCUD missiles "indiscriminately".
The opposition National Coalition has said it will boycott peace talks slated for January if the bombing of Aleppo does not cease.
A security source in Damascus on Tuesday defended the operations.
"We do not target any area unless we are 100 per cent sure that the ones there are terrorists," the source said, using the regime's term for the rebels.
"The bodies you see on television are the bodies of terrorists and mercenaries, most of whom travelled into Syria from abroad."
Syria hit back at the US on Tuesday, describing it as a "one-eyed pirate" for condemning the aerial assault but "ignoring the crimes committed by the terrorists".
Fighting raged on Wednesday in the Aleppo province area of Naqarin, pitting rebels and jihadists on one side against the army backed by Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah fighters and the paramilitary National Defence Force.
The regime's ground forces were backed by helicopters. which dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas, the observatory said.
