Dozens of Syrian regime air raids on rebel-held Aleppo

Dozens of Syrian regime air strikes on Aleppo killed at least 16 civilians on Sunday, a monitor said, with barrel bombs causing huge damage to one rebel-held district.

Local activists put the death toll higher, saying that around 32 have been killed.  

The crude, unguided explosive devices hit the Qaterji neighbourhood, where an AFP photographer saw a street strewn with rubble as residents ran for safety while a rescuer rushed a bloodied child into an ambulance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine civilians were killed in Qaterji and two others - including a child - died in the Mayssar neighbourhood of the northern city.

Another five civilians were killed in two other districts and on the city's outskirts.

In Qaterji, a man stood in the middle of a road surrounded by debris and shouting angrily: "There are only civilians here, there are no rebels!"

Further down the street, two women and two children scrambled for safety past the mangled iron shutters of shops and buildings badly damaged by the barrel bomb, the AFP photographer said.

The rescuer, his hair covered in white dust, carried a child with a blood-covered face to an ambulance in which another wounded child already lay.

A truce agreed by Russia and the United States in February has been violated nearly continuously around Aleppo, where the regime and rebel groups have fought for control since 2012.

Around 200,000 people lived in rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo and the only route out of those areas has been cut following fierce fighting that erupted on Thursday.

More than 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo since April.

Analysts estimate that around 400,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.