Dozens killed in heavy airstrikes as Aleppo assault intensifies

More than 150 were wounded as shelling continued overnight on Friday in the towns of al-Firdous, al-Salhin, al-Sakhour, al-Shaar, al-Joulam, al-Maysar, Bustan al-Qasir and Qadi al-Askar in eastern Aleppo.

"At least 28 civilians, including women and children, died on Saturday and over 150 others were wounded," a source in the Syria Civil Defence told The New Arab.

Saturday's airstrikes come amid reports of a suspected attack involving toxic gas on the western edge of the rebel-held city.

At least 12 people, including children, were treated on Friday for breathing difficulties, said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports health facilities in Aleppo.

Claims of toxic gas attacks are common in Syria, and reports by international inspectors have held the government responsible for using chemicals in attacks on civilians, which Damascus denies.

Airstrikes on Friday also hit a village in rural areas Aleppo province, killing seven members of a family, including four children, opposition activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of airstrikes, artillery and barrel bombs hit 18 different neighbourhoods of eastern Aleppo.

Government bombings targeted neighbourhoods with medical facilities, including the children's hospital and a nearby clinic that has one of the few remaining intensive care units in eastern Aleppo, the Observatory said.

All hospitals in the besieged city were forced to shut down on Friday, even after having moved their operations underground to dodge the relentless bombing.

"This destruction of infrastructure essential to life leaves the besieged, resolute people, including all children and elderly men and women, without any health facilities offering life-saving treatment ... leaving them to die," Aleppo's health directorate said late on Friday.

The World Health Organization said that in 2016, it recorded 126 attacks on health facilities, a common tactic over the five years of Syria's civil war. Russia and the Syrian government deny targeting hospitals.

The onslaught on the rebel-held enclave – home to some 275,000 people – began on Tuesday, when Syria's ally Russia, announced its own offensive on the northern rebel-controlled Idlib province and Homs province in central Syria.

Since then, over 100 people have been killed across northern Syria.