Syrian troops capture high ground in Aleppo

BEIRUT -- Syrian government forces and their allies Monday captured strategic high ground in embattled Aleppo as Russia -- a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad -- said it was not planning more "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting in the city's eastern, rebel-held districts.

The fighting in Aleppo came as airstrikes hit towns in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 13 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. They said the people killed were in the towns of Kfar Takharim and Khan Sheikhoun, where a market was hit.

Fighting resumed in Aleppo over the weekend after a days-long lull announced by Moscow meant to allow rebels and civilians to leave the eastern districts. The rebels rejected the Russian offer, and none of the civilians left.

Government troops launched a fresh offensive and took the hilltop of Bazo on Monday on the southern edge of Aleppo, near military bases, and shelled the rebel neighborhoods, according to opposition activists.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Bazo was taken amid heavy bombardment. The Observatory and the Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, reported government shelling in eastern parts of the city.

A video released by the Syrian army showed tanks and cannons pounding rebel positions in the area. The state SANA news agency, meanwhile, said the rebels shelled government-held neighborhoods in western Aleppo, killing one person and wounding seven.

A pro-opposition media outlet circulated footage of a hard-line Islamist rebel coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah announcing the campaign to break the government's siege of the city's east would begin "within hours."

Syrian troops have besieged rebel-held parts of Aleppo for weeks, subjecting the districts to some of the worst air raids since a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia collapsed Sept. 19. Opposition activists say more than 600 people have been killed in Aleppo and neighboring villages since.

Jaish al-Fatah commander Ali Abu Odai al-Aloush said, "Zero hour has drawn near," and his militants had begun moving toward Aleppo.

A spokesman for the Nour el-Din al-Zinki rebel faction in Aleppo said an operation to break the government's siege of the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo was "coming."