Airstrikes in Aleppo kill more than 20

BEIRUT -- Airstrikes pounded rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Thursday, killing more than 20 people and hitting a water-pumping station on the third day of a renewed air campaign on the besieged territory, Syrian activists and rescue workers said.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said airstrikes in the rebel-held province of Idlib earlier this week killed at least 30 members of an al-Qaida-linked group, including three commanders.

The strikes are part of a major Syrian and Russian offensive launched earlier this week on opposition-held areas that has killed dozens of people.

In one area, volunteer first responders dug through the rubble for four hours before pulling out a 6-year-old child who was still alive. The child's mother was killed in the strikes, said Ibrahim al-Haj, a spokesman for the rescuers, known as the Syrian Civil Defense.

The activist-run Public Services Authority said the Bab al-Nairab water plant was struck with a barrel bomb. Spokesman Ahmad al-Shami said the plant was damaged but still is operating.

"This regime uses any means to add pressure to civilians. It has bombed bakeries and hospitals and has not made an exception for water and electricity," he said.

Airstrikes on Wednesday struck the city's central blood bank and a children's hospital. Medical facilities have come under attack repeatedly during the Syrian conflict, with 126 such incidents this year alone, according to the World Health Organization.

Doctors Without Borders said the children's hospital and a specialized surgical hospital were hit by Wednesday's strikes.

"Hospital staff managed to move children -- including prematurely born babies -- from cots and incubators to the basement of the building in order to shelter them from the bombing," said the aid group, which sponsors both hospitals.

The Oxfam aid group said the more than 250,000 residents of eastern Aleppo have limited food and clean water as winter approaches.