Residential blocks bombed in Aleppo

Dozens of civilians including 12 from the same family were yesterday killed in heavy bombardment of east Aleppo despite Western warnings of sanctions against Syria's regime over attacks on the city.

Once Syria's thriving commercial hub, Aleppo has been ravaged by bombing raids and intensifying clashes as President Bashar al-Assad's forces fight to capture rebel-held parts of the city.

World powers were expected to follow up yesterday on last-ditch efforts at the weekend aimed at ending Syria's five-year conflict.

The latest air strikes on Aleppo killed 13 civilians in the rebel-held district of Marjeh, including 12 members of the same family, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Nine of the family members were minors, including a 17-year-old girl and her newborn," said the Britain-based monitoring group's head Rami Abdel Rahman. The deaths brought to 47 the number of people killed since Sunday morning in east Aleppo, the Observatory said.

Bombardment has been so heavy in recent days that streets have been blocked off by massive piles of rubble from destroyed buildings, an AFP correspondent said.

The deadliest raids were overnight on a residential block in Qaterji, where the Observatory said Russian strikes killed 18 civilians.

"There are still families under the ruins. We pulled out seven or eight bodies and dozens of wounded," said ambulance driver Abu Mohamed.

"The hospitals are full of casualties. It's a disaster."

One of those rescued was Maarouf, a 12-year-old whose leg had been trapped under rubble on the upper floor of a residential building.

A White Helmet volunteer in a crane could be seen approaching the boy, who was clad in a dust-covered shirt and wriggling in vain to get himself free. Maarouf was extracted and his injured right leg treated at a field hospital.

But White Helmets rescuers later emerged with a dead baby cradled in a blanket, her face caked in dust.