Aleppo, Syria: The Syrian army was preparing an offensive on Thursday to retake the whole of Aleppo, as escalating fighting in the divided second city killed dozens of civilians in another blow to a tattered truce.
Nearly 200 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura warned the hard-won February 27 ceasefire was now "barely alive" and pleaded for urgent action by its co-sponsors Russia and the United States to rescue it.
But pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said the army was now poised for a "decisive battle" for Aleppo and the surrounding province which would begin in the coming days.
"Now is the time to launch the battle for the complete liberation of Aleppo," the paper said in an editorial, adding that the campaign "will not take long to begin, nor to finish."
A source close to the regime told AFP the offensive would begin in the next few days.
"The army is preparing a huge operation in the coming days to push the rebels away from the city by encircling it and creating a security zone," the source said.
Rebels have controlled eastern districts of Aleppo since 2012, while western neighbourhoods are held by the regime.
Control of the surrounding province is divided between a myriad of armed groups -- jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, Kurdish militia and various rebel factions as well as the army.
'Humanitarian disaster'
The upsurge in violence in and around Aleppo has severely holed the February ceasefire between the government and non-jihadist rebels and cast a shadow over the UN envoy's hopes of convening a new round of peace talks next month.
Rebel rocket and artillery fire on government-held neighbourhoods on Thursday killed 18 civilians, including two children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Regime air strikes on rebel-held districts, including the densely populated Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, killed 31 civilians, including three children, according to the British-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
An AFP correspondent said every building in sight in the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood had had its windows blown out.
"The planes have set every eastern neighbourhood on fire today," one resident told AFP.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that Aleppo city was "on the brink of humanitarian disaster".
"Wherever you are, you hear explosions of mortars, shelling and planes flying over," said Valter Gros, who heads ICRC's office in Aleppo.
"There is no neighbourhood of the city that hasn't been hit. People are living on the edge. Everyone here fears for their lives and nobody knows what is coming next."
'Still alive, but barely'
Late on Wednesday, government air strikes hit a hospital and nearby block of flats in the rebel-held Sukkari neighbourhood, killing 30 people, the civil defence group known as the White Helmets told AFP.
Among the dead was the last paediatrician still working in rebel areas of the city.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which had been supporting the hospital, condemned the strike.
"The MSF-supported hospital in Aleppo was the main referral centre for paediatrics and had eight doctors and 28 nurses. Hospitals are #notatarget," the group said on Twitter.
Ten of the dead were so badly disfigured they could not be identified, a rescue worker told AFP.
The Aleppo violence has raised fears for the ceasefire in other areas of Syria and called into question the future of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva.
The UN envoy said the truce was "still alive, but barely."
"It's still there... but it's in great danger... And the perception is that it could collapse at any time," de Mistura told reporters.
He said the United States, which supports some rebel groups, and regime ally Russia needed to act, calling on them to organise a high-level Syria meeting before negotiations resume.
As the Geneva talks went into recess, de Mistura said he wanted to open another round "during the course of May".
But he added that he was waiting to fix a date in the hope that world powers would use their leverage to salvage the ceasefire.
"How can you have substantial talks when you have only news about bombing and shelling?" he asked.
AFP
