SOHR says death toll rises to 250 in recent fight in Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Saturday that nearly 30 air strikes hit opposition-held areas of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, bringing the total number of people killed by the warring sides to nearly 250 after nine straight days of bombardment.

Local truces near Damascus and in the northern province Latakia that went into effect on Friday have taken hold, however fighting continued on the main battlefield in Aleppo. The development follows a surge in violence that the United Nations said showed "monstrous disregard" for civilian lives.

The Syrian regime described the truce as an attempt to salvage a wider "cessation of hostilities" agreement that has been in place since February.

The partial truce, which began at 1am on Saturday, will last for 24 hours in Damascus and the Eastern Ghouta suburb outside the capital.

The truce brokered by Washington and Moscow, has all but collapsed in fighting that has intensified, particularly in and around Aleppo as peace talks in Geneva have crumbled.

SOHR said at least five people were killed in Aleppo early on Saturday in the latest round of air strikes, which have been carried out by Syrian regime warplanes.

‘A bit quieter'

The SOHR director Rami Abdulrahman said regime-held areas of Aleppo were "a bit quieter today," but that shells fired by rebels were still intermittently hitting.

"There aren't clashes in Latakia, there aren't clashes in Ghouta (Damascus suburbs)," only some lower-level violence between rival rebel groups outside Damascus, Abdulrahman said.

A resident of Western Ghouta, which is under regime siege, said shellings appeared to have ceased around the capital.

"Until now there has been no military activity and no sound of bombardments in nearby areas, no sound of shelling or of warplanes," the resident, Maher Abu Jaafar said.

"It's the opposite of last night, when there was a lot of bombing and the sounds of rockets and shells," he added.

The United Nations has called on Moscow and Washington to help restore the ceasefire to prevent the complete collapse of talks aimed at ending of the sixth year conflict in which more than 400,000 people have been killed and millions displaced.