Air Raids On Aleppo Continue As Truce Holds In Other Parts Of Syria

Syrian government forces continued air strikes on rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo on April 30, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 separate air raids targeted the contested city, killing at least five people.

However, a temporary truce announced by the Syrian army late on April 29 appeared to have taken hold in the province of Latakia and Damascus suburbs.

Aleppo was excluded from the temporary truce.

Damascus said the "regime of calm" was an attempt to salvage a wider cease-fire agreement reached in February.

Eyewitnesses say dozens of civilians left the battered district of Bustan Al-Qasr in Aleppo's rebel-held east early on April 30.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city, has been the scene of air strikes and intense shelling in the past nine days that killed nearly 250 people in both sides of the frontline, according to the Observatory.

The Red Cross says four medical facilities were hit in Aleppo on April 29.

Earlier in the week, air raids hit a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross as well as nearby housing, killing 30 people.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP