Syrian government warplanes and artillery pounded rebel-held districts of Aleppo for the second day Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and damaging two hospitals, a blood bank and several residential buildings in the city’s eastern neighbourhoods.

Residents rushed for cover and doctors cowered with their patients in a hospital basement amid the relentless onslaught. Local activists said they counted about 50 artillery and airstrikes since the morning hours.

The resumption of airstrikes on besieged Aleppo began Tuesday as Russia announced its much-anticipated offensive in Syria’s north and central Homs province. Meanwhile, activists reported the airstrikes on besieged Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 32 civilians have been killed since the bombardment resumed on Tuesday after a nearly four-week respite for the city’s eastern, rebel-held quarters.

The local Civil Defence rescue group, also known as White Helmets, reported that 11 civilians were killed in the Sukkari neighbourhood on Wednesday alone.

Survivors described the horrific assault and videos posted on social media showed rescuers working through the afternoon to pull victims from the rubble of bombed buildings.

Ibrahim al-Haj of the Civil Defence said one paramedic had been killed.

Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports several hospitals in opposition areas in Syria, said it appeared the government was focusing its fire on Aleppo’s medical infrastructure. There are only five functioning trauma facilities left in eastern Aleppo, he said.

The Independent Doctors Association, which supports several facilities in Syria, said eastern Aleppo’s central blood bank was struck in Wednesday’s attacks, as well as a children’s hospital supported by the association.

“Me and my staff and all the patients are sitting in one room in the basement right now,” a pediatrician who identified himself only as Dr. Hatem posted in a note that was cited by the association. “We will try to get out when the airstrikes leave our sky. Pray for us please.”

The U.N. estimates that pro-government forces have trapped some 275,000 people in Aleppo’s eastern quarters in a strict blockade enforced since August, as ground and air forces meanwhile pound the area’s hospitals. The U.N. warned last week that food rations inside Aleppo’s rebel-held districts could be depleted this week.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Tuesday with Portugal’s state-run RTP television channel that his forces were fighting to liberate civilians from “terrorists,” while most of the rebels in Aleppo, numbering around 8,000 according to the U.N., are Syrians who have been fighting to overthrow Assad.

Assad also identified U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as a possible “natural ally,” if he turned out to be “genuine” about his commitment to fight terror in Syria.

Trump has indicated he would prioritize defeating the Islamic State group in Syria over regime change, saying the rebels could be “worse” than the sitting president.

Elsewhere in Syria’s north, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces inched closer to taking the town of al-Bab, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) northeast of Aleppo, from the Islamic State group, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the opposition fighters were about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from al-Bab.

“The siege is going according to plan,” Erdogan said. “There is a resistance there at the moment but I don’t think it will last long.”

Ankara sent ground forces into northern Syria in August, vowing to clear the border area of both IS and Syrian Kurdish militias.

Erdogan also said that U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters — whom Turkey views as terrorists, claiming they are an extension of an outlawed Kurdish insurgent group in Turkey — would soon leave the town of Manbij, in keeping with a purported U.S. promise to Turkey.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.</s>The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against terrorism.

Russia announced a major air offensive in Syria on Tuesday as Syrian opposition activists reported the first airstrikes in three weeks in the besieged, rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy “international terrorism and extremism.”

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate fights alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Mr. Putin on Tuesday that the operation involves aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicised trip to Syria’s shores last month. He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.

The activists reported strikes in all three places. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean have struck areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Observatory said airstrikes also struck three neighborhoods in Aleppo city, but had no immediate word on casualties.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria’s largest city.

“People are scared. The bombardment is intense,” al-Halaby wrote.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo that was designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. Aleppo has been contested since 2012.

The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two U.N. agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to “an all—time low,” threatening to drive more people from their homes after 5-1/2 years of war.

The World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization say factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertilizer and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing.

A joint report released Tuesday says the planting area in the 2015—2016 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition. WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by IS.

FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80 percent of households lack food or money to buy it.</s>Wounded people are seen around the wreckage of buildings after the aircraft reportedly belonging to the Russian Army carried out an air strike on a residential area in Aleppo, on Tuesday (Anadolu Agency photo)

BEIRUT — Russia launched new strikes in Syria on Tuesday involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first air strikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardment in Syria's largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy — "international terrorism and extremism".

The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicentre of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.

From the militants’ side, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Daesh terror group has no presence in Aleppo city.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation, marking its combat debut.

“We launched a major operation to strike the positions of Daesh and Jabhat Al Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs,” Shoigu said at a meeting with Putin, referring to Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria by its old name. He said the Russian strikes are targeting ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories.

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles and the military also used Bastion missiles stationed in Syria to strike militant targets in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. Shoigu said that before launching the strikes, the military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.

“It’s a well-developed, industrial-scale production,” he said, adding that the strikes will continue. He did not mention Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists reported strikes in all three places — Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of extremist groups, including the Al Qaeda affiliate known as Fatah Al Sham Front.

The observatory and other groups said air strikes also struck at least eight neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the air strikes on Aleppo killed four and wounded others.

Ibrahim Al Haj, of the Syrian civil defence, said that by late afternoon his group had counted 72 air raids in nine different neighbourhood of eastern Aleppo. He said four people were killed and 32 were wounded in attacks that mostly hit residential areas in the besieged city.

Sounds of warplanes flying at low altitude could be clearly heard over the phone.

Russian Defence Ministry Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov insisted that the Russian military did not strike any targets in the city of Aleppo, adding that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any raids on the city for four weeks.

Activist Baraa Al Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of the city.

“People are scared. The bombardment is intense,” Halaby wrote.

A reporter for Syrian state TV, speaking from the government-held western part of the city, said troops are preparing to attack eastern Aleppo from nine directions.

Four weeks ago, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly air strikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

The Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV aired live footage from Aleppo, showing smoke billowing from eastern parts of the city, contested since 2012.

On Saturday, Syrian government troops repelled a rebel offensive on the western parts of Aleppo designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In the lead-up to the offensive, which was formally declared by the Russian defence ministry on Tuesday, a number of air strikes targeted at least three field hospitals in rural western Aleppo province, putting them out of order, the observatory and Thiqa news agency reported.

Syrian and Russian governments deny attacking hospitals. The UN rights agency, UNICEF and other UN agencies have repeatedly condemned airstrikes on hospitals and medical facilities.

Konashenkov, the defence ministry official, rejected the claims that Russian warplanes had bombed hospitals in Aleppo province as “outright lies”.

Since Syria’s conflict started in 2011, the US-based Physicians for Human Rights recorded 382 attacks on medical facilities and hospitals throughout Syria. Of those, 293 were carried out by government forces and 16 were by Russian warplanes, it said.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, a member of the extremist Jund Al Aqsa group known as Abu-Dardaa-Al Shami told The Associated Press over the telephone that the airstrikes are “much, much, much more intense than previous ones”. He added that in addition to the air raids, ballistic missiles hit the province near the town of Saraqeb.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two UN agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to “an all-time low”, threatening to drive more people from their homes after five-and-a-half years of war.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation said factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertiliser and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing. A joint report released on Tuesday says the planting area in the 2015-2016 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition. WFP Spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by Daesh.

FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80 per cent of households in Syria lack food or money to buy it.</s>BEIRUT -- Airstrikes hammered rebel-held zones Wednesday in Syria's besieged Aleppo, badly damaging a children's hospital as staff members and patients huddled in a basement, doctors said.

The attacks came a day after Syrian government forces and their Russian allies resumed offensives across northern Syria, including Russian cruise-missile strikes from a warship in the Mediterranean. Syrian forces, meanwhile, bombarded rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo in an attempt to break one of the opposition's last urban strongholds.

Russia said Tuesday that it had opened a major offensive against rebel-held areas in Idlib and Homs provinces, but denied involvement in the new attacks on Aleppo.

Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been divided between rebel and government control since 2012 along one of the most intractable front lines of the war. The United Nations estimates that pro-government forces have trapped some 275,000 people in Aleppo's eastern quarters in a strict blockade enforced since August, as ground and air forces meanwhile pound the area's hospitals.

Loss of the rebel footholds in Aleppo would be a major blow to armed factions and others fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. It also could hasten the fall of their remaining strongholds across the country.

Staff members at the children's hospital in Aleppo's al-Shaar neighborhood said they were hiding in the basement, counting the bombs above their heads. The young patients and their parents cowered alongside in one of the few hospitals still operating in rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

East Aleppo's central blood bank, near the hospital, also was hit in the raids, residents said. Activists said they counted about 50 artillery rounds and airstrikes since the morning hours.

Speaking from the basement of the children's hospital, its director, who identified himself only as Hatem, said his staff was trapped. "The planes are up above. We can't get out. Maybe we can protect ourselves in this room," said Hatem, who gave only one name in fear of possible reprisals against his family.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least 32 civilians have been killed since the bombardment resumed Tuesday after a nearly four-week respite. Residents said an ambulance driver was among the dead, underscoring the dangers facing rescue workers who venture out to save lives.

The civil-defense rescue group, known as the White Helmets, reported that 11 civilians were killed in the Sukkari neighborhood on Wednesday alone.

Video footage from the al-Shaar area appeared to show the aftermath of a fierce bombardment. Fires licked the edge of cars and buildings, and the air was filled with dust.

The Independent Doctors Association, a nonprofit group, said the children's hospital had been badly damaged. It was the fifth attack on a medical facility in three days. The United States condemned those attacks Tuesday, calling them violations of international humanitarian law.

Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports several hospitals in opposition areas in Syria, said it appeared the government was focusing its fire on Aleppo's medical infrastructure. There are only five functioning trauma facilities left in eastern Aleppo, he said.

East Aleppo is surrounded by an array of government-allied forces, including Syrian troops and Iran-backed militias, and its supply routes have been cut. The U.N. said last week that aid workers in the area had handed out the last of their food stockpiles.

On Wednesday, a Syrian state-owned television channel, Ikhabariyah, reported large troop deployments along several main fronts in Aleppo. It claimed an assault was imminent and that "zero hour" would soon begin.

The Syrian and Russian governments have framed the fight against armed opposition groups as a war on terrorism. In an interview with Portuguese television that aired Tuesday, Assad suggested that President-elect Donald Trump could be a "natural ally" to the Damascus government if he is "genuine" about fighting "terrorists" in Syria.

Trump has indicated he would prioritize defeating the Islamic State group in Syria over regime change, saying the rebels could be "worse" than the sitting president.

But attacks repeatedly have targeted civilian infrastructure, often bombing areas where moderate rebel factions operate. Assad's troops also have besieged dozens of towns and villages, adopting a policy toward civilians that the United Nations has labeled "surrender or starve."

Although it began with peaceful protests, Syria's rebellion is increasingly dominated by jihadi factions, including an al-Qaida-linked group -- Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front -- that focuses on building a popular constituency among the communities it says it protects.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that Russian airstrikes had resumed in Idlib, a province where Jabhat Fatah al-Sham operates among civilians and other rebel groups.

Sherif al-Khalaf, a journalist from the area, said the bombing had struck 34 areas since Tuesday, killing six and wounding dozens. "The damage is immense and people are frightened," he said.

Syria's five-year war has claimed the lives of an estimated half a million people and touched off the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Information for this article was contributed by Louisa Loveluck and Heba Habib of The Washington Post and by Philip Issa of The Associated Press.</s>The air raids formed part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and allies including Russia, which fired coordinated volleys of missiles at rebels on Tuesday and for the first time used its only aircraft carrier.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the air strikes on eastern Aleppo on Wednesday alone killed at least 21 people, including five children and an emergency worker. They were carried out by either Russian or Syrian warplanes, it said.

The Observatory said districts struck included al-Shaar, al-Sukkari, al-Sakhour and Karam al-Beik.

Air raids also continued in the countryside west of Aleppo from which rebels have launched assaults on government-held areas. An attack on the village of Batbo killed at least 19 people including three children, the Observatory said.

Moscow has denied reports that its jets have hit Aleppo in the renewed wave of bombardment, and said it was sticking to a moratorium on air strikes in the city.

Tuesday's bombing run on eastern Aleppo appeared to mark the end of a pause inside the city declared by Russia on Oct. 18 which Syria's military had also largely observed.

The Observatory and residents said the city's east was hit by rocket fired from jets, barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and artillery from government forces.

"The helicopters won't stop for a single moment," Bebars Mishal, a civil defense worker in rebel-held Aleppo, told Reuters. "Right now, the bombing won't let up."

The Civil Defence is a volunteer rescue service that operates in rebel-controlled areas of Syria, including Aleppo, the country's largest city and commercial hub before the war.

Wednesday's bombing struck next to a children's hospital and blood bank in the Shaar district, and near a school in the Salah al-Din district, residents and the Observatory said.

Two ambulances were also destroyed, said an advocacy officer at the Syrian American Medical Society aid group, citing reports from colleagues in Aleppo.

"We woke up to the bombing and until now, the warplanes and helicopters are running," said Modar Shekho, a nurse in eastern Aleppo. "The Shaar neighborhood was burned down between yesterday and today."

A video posted by Shekho on a social networking site, which he said was taken on Wednesday, showed a building with large holes and burn marks next to a large heap of rubble and twisted metal which he said was all that remained of another structure.

Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, a Civil Defence official, said there were more than 40 air strikes on the Shaar area. "Today the bombardment is very, very fierce," he said.

On Monday and early Tuesday, there were air strikes on hospitals in three rebel-held towns to the west of Aleppo, knocking them all out of service. Damascus and Moscow both deny targeting hospitals.

The World Health Organization said there had been heavy attacks on five hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib provinces since Sunday, severely reducing access to health services for people in northern Syria.

Syrian state television said on Tuesday the Damascus government's air force took part in strikes against what it called terrorist strongholds in Aleppo's Old City.

Russia said it had struck Islamic State and former Nusra Front militant sites elsewhere in Syria, without mentioning Aleppo.

On Tuesday evening, state-owned Ikhabariyah television reported large troop deployments along several main fronts in the Aleppo theater in preparation for a major ground offensive that it said was imminent and awaiting "zero hour" to begin.

Aleppo has become the pivotal front in Syria's 5-1/2-year war pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite Muslim militias, against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

Aleppo has for years been divided between the government-held western sector and rebel-held east, which the Syrian army and its allies besieged during the summer. Its allied forces include Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias.</s>BEIRUT — Russia launched new strikes in Syria on Tuesday involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first airstrikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardment in Syria's largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy — "international terrorism and extremism."

President Barack Obama's administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. From the militants' side, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo city.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation, marking its combat debut.

"We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs," Shoigu said at a meeting with Putin, referring to the al-Qaida's branch in Syria by its old name. He said the Russian strikes are targeting ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories.

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles and the military also used Bastion missiles stationed in Syria to strike militant targets in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. Shoigu said that before launching the strikes, the military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.

"It's a well-developed, industrial-scale production," he said, adding that the strikes will continue. He did not mention Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists reported strikes in all three places — Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadi groups, including the al-Qaida affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

The observatory and other groups said airstrikes also struck at least eight neighborhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the airstrikes on Aleppo killed four and wounded others.

Ibrahim al-Haj, of the Syrian Civil Defense, said that by late afternoon his group had counted 72 air raids in nine different neighborhood of eastern Aleppo. He said four people were killed and 32 were wounded in attacks that mostly hit residential areas in the besieged city.</s>BEIRUT (AP) — Russia announced a major new air offensive in Syria on Tuesday as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first airstrikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly violence in what is Syria's largest city.

The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy — "international terrorism and extremism."

The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. From the militants' side, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo city.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Putin on Tuesday that the operation involves the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicized trip to Syria's shores last month. He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists reported strikes in all three places — Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadi groups, including the al-Qaida affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

The Observatory and other groups said airstrikes also struck at least eight neighborhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the airstrikes on Aleppo killed four and wounded others.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria's largest city.

"People are scared. The bombardment is intense," al-Halaby wrote.

A reporter for Syrian state TV speaking from the government-held western part of the city, said troops are preparing to attack east Aleppo from nine directions.

Ibrahim Nseir, a priest and the head of the Anglican sect in Aleppo, also speaking from the city's west, said he could see smoke billowing from the eastern neighborhoods as a result of the airstrikes. Sounds of warplanes flying at low altitude could be clearly heard over the phone.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV aired live footage from Aleppo, showing smoke billowing from eastern parts of the city, contested since 2012.

On Saturday, Syrian government troops repelled a rebel offensive on the western parts of Aleppo designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, a member of the extremist Jund al-Aqsa group known as Abu-Dardaa-al-Shami told The Associated Press over the telephone that the airstrikes are "much, much, much more intense than previous ones." He added that in addition to the air raids, ballistic missiles hit the province near the town of Saraqeb.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two U.N. agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to "an all-time low," threatening to drive more people from their homes after 5-1/2 years of war.

The World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization said factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertilizer and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing. A joint report released Tuesday says the planting area in the 2015-2016 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition. WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by IS.

FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80 percent of households in Syria lack food or money to buy it.</s>BEIRUT | Syrian government warplanes and artillery pounded rebel-held districts of Aleppo for the second day Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and damaging two hospitals, a blood bank and several residential buildings in the city’s eastern neighborhoods.

Residents rushed for cover and doctors cowered with their patients in a hospital basement amid the relentless onslaught. Local activists said they counted about 50 artillery and airstrikes since the morning hours.

The resumption of airstrikes on besieged Aleppo began Tuesday as Russia announced its much-anticipated offensive in Syria’s north and central Homs province. Meanwhile, activists reported the airstrikes on besieged Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 32 civilians have been killed since the bombardment resumed on Tuesday after a nearly four-week respite for the city’s eastern, rebel-held quarters.

The local Civil Defense rescue group, also known as White Helmets, reported that 11 civilians were killed in the Sukkari neighborhood on Wednesday alone.

Survivors described the horrific assault and videos posted on social media showed rescuers working through the afternoon to pull victims from the rubble of bombed buildings.

Ibrahim al-Haj of the Civil Defense said one paramedic had been killed.

Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports several hospitals in opposition areas in Syria, said it appeared the government was focusing its fire on Aleppo’s medical infrastructure. There are only five functioning trauma facilities left in eastern Aleppo, he said.

The Independent Doctors Association, which supports several facilities in Syria, said eastern Aleppo’s central blood bank was struck in Wednesday’s attacks, as well as a children’s hospital supported by the association.

“Me and my staff and all the patients are sitting in one room in the basement right now,” a pediatrician who identified himself only as Dr. Hatem posted in a note that was cited by the association. “We will try to get out when the airstrikes leave our sky. Pray for us please.”

The U.N. estimates that pro-government forces have trapped some 275,000 people in Aleppo’s eastern quarters in a strict blockade enforced since August, as ground and air forces meanwhile pound the area’s hospitals. The U.N. warned last week that food rations inside Aleppo’s rebel-held districts could be depleted this week.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Tuesday with Portugal’s state-run RTP television channel that his forces were fighting to liberate civilians from “terrorists,” while most of the rebels in Aleppo, numbering around 8,000 according to the U.N., are Syrians who have been fighting to overthrow Assad.

Assad also identified U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as a possible “natural ally,” if he turned out to be “genuine” about his commitment to fight terror in Syria.

Trump has indicated he would prioritize defeating the Islamic State group in Syria over regime change, saying the rebels could be “worse” than the sitting president.

Elsewhere in Syria’s north, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces inched closer to taking the town of al-Bab, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Aleppo, from the Islamic State group, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the opposition fighters were about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from al-Bab.

“The siege is going according to plan,” Erdogan said. “There is a resistance there at the moment but I don’t think it will last long.”

Ankara sent ground forces into northern Syria in August, vowing to clear the border area of both IS and Syrian Kurdish militias.

Erdogan also said that U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters — whom Turkey views as terrorists, claiming they are an extension of an outlawed Kurdish insurgent group in Turkey — would soon leave the town of Manbij, in keeping with a purported U.S. promise to Turkey.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.</s>A still image taken from a video footage and released by Russia’s defence ministry on Tuesday, shows Russian Bastion coastal missile launchers launching Oniks missiles at an unknown location in Syria (Reuters photo)

SOCHI, Russia — Russia launched coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria on Tuesday and Moscow for the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Shoigu said a frigate had fired cruise missiles, jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, had been involved in action, and missiles had been loosed from a mobile land-based missile system inside Syria.

In Washington, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was aware of the announcement, but was still looking into the strikes.

“From a pure military perspective, Russia already has significant capabilities inside Syria,” Davis said. “Anything that they bring in from the outside, if it’s aircraft carriers or if it’s cruise missiles launching from ships or if it’s long-range strike bombers flying in from Russia, those are done for show,” Davis added.

Reporting to President Vladimir Putin in southern Russia, Shoigu said Russia had targeted sites associated with Daesh and the Nusra Front, which has changed its name to Fateh Al Sham, in the Homs and Idlib provinces.

“We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets,” said Shoigu. “We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centres... and factories.”

Shoigu said the strikes would continue. He made no mention of Aleppo, where a civil defence official and a resident said air strikes had struck several districts in the rebel-held east of the city for the first time in weeks.

Syrian state television said Syria’s air force carried out strikes on Aleppo on Tuesday. Russia says its air force is for now honouring a unilateral moratorium on hitting rebel targets inside Aleppo.</s>Intense air strikes have hit several rebel-held areas in Aleppo for the first time in more than two weeks, signalling the start of a major government offensive in Syria's northern city.

The ferocious bombardment of eastern Aleppo on Tuesday came as Russian armed forces also announced the launch of a large-scale operation against opposition targets in Syria.

Syrian state television said government jets carried out attacks against what it called "terrorist strongholds" and supply depots in the old city of Aleppo, citing what it described as "special sources".

The air strikes killed at least 10 people in Aleppo city, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other groups.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, said death toll was at least four.

"In the last few hours at least nine neighbourhoods inside the city of Aleppo have come under intense bombardment," said Al Jazeera's Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Gaziantep, on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border.

"Residents from inside Aleppo tell us that there is chaos and mayhem in the streets - where there are streets still remaining.

Many parts of Aleppo have been cut off from other areas because they were targeted in earlier air strikes and roads were taken.

Medics say they are trying to reach those areas, but they are still stuck inside their homes because enemy aircraft are still in the air," Javaid said.

"In the northern part of Aleppo, air strikes have been the most intense and activists there tell us that this is where they expect that a ground incursion will occur."

Aleppo has become the fiercest front in Syria's five-and-a-half-year war, pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against Sunni rebels, including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

READ MORE: In east Aleppo, 'there is no way out'

"It's all air strikes and parachute bombs. Today, the bombing is violent ... There hasn't been this kind of attack in more than 15 days," said Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, an Aleppo-based spokesman for the Syrian Civil Defence group, adding that fighter jets and helicopters were still visible in the sky.

The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, is a first responder group that operates in rebel-held areas across the country.

Also on Tuesday, Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister, said fighter jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had launched their first strikes on Syria.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Shoigu said.

"Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 began their operations."

He said Russian jets would target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs.

"We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs," he said, referring to the armed group previously known as the al-Nusra Front.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, a member of the Jund al-Aqsa group, known as Abu-Dardaa-al-Shami, told the Associated Press news agency over the phone that the air strikes were "much, much, much more intense than previous ones".

He said that in addition to the air raids, ballistic missiles hit the province near the town of Saraqeb.

The Observatory, a UK-based group monitoring the war, said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. Syrian activists also reported strikes in Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

Russian statement

Later on Tuesday, the Russian Interfax news agency cited Russia's defence ministry as saying that Tuesday's missile strikes did not hit Aleppo.

The ministry said that Russian and Syrian jets have not bombed the city in the last 28 days.

"Planes were launched from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and also cruise missiles were launched from a frigate, which struck targets in Idlib and Homs province," said Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow.

"What we are not hearing at the moment from the Russians is any mention of Aleppo, only at the moment ... strikes against Idlib and Homs province."

Elizabeth Trudeau, US state department spokesperson, said the renewed bombing coincided with multiparty talks in Geneva between the United States, Russia and other countries seeking to achieve a ceasefire in the conflict and a roadmap towards a political settlement.

"We strongly condemn the resumption of air strikes in Syria by the Russians as well as the Syrian regime," Trudeau told reporters. "The most recent reported attacks were on five hospitals and one mobile clinic in Syria. We believe it's a violation of international law."

Trudeau said Russia had allowed no food or other aid into east Aleppo during its suspension of bombing.

"It let eastern Aleppo residents starve while seeking praise from the international community for halting indiscriminate strikes for three weeks," she said.

Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of the Damascus government and its Russian ally of repeatedly targeting hospitals, bread lines and other civilian infrastructure in territory controlled by the rebels.

Government offensive

Both Russia and Syria have denied doing so, and say their air campaign is directed against military targets belonging to the opposition fighters, who they describe as "terrorists".

Aleppo has for years been divided into government-held western and rebel-held eastern sectors, but the Syrian army and its allies managed to isolate and besiege the rebel-held districts during the summer.

Its allies include Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias.

A government offensive to retake eastern districts raged from late September to late October, backed by an intense aerial bombardment that the UN said killed hundreds and drew condemnation from western countries and rights groups.

However, after Syria and Russia announced their pause in strikes last month - a move they said was to let those who wished to quit besieged areas - rebels launched their own assault that killed dozens of civilians in west Aleppo, according to the UN.
Between four and 20 people are reported killed by government and Russian airstrikes that hit rebel held areas, five hospitals, and a mobile clinic in Aleppo, says U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau. Syria and Russia deny targeting Aleppo.