Rebel rockets hit hospital in Syria's Aleppo, dozens of civilian causalities

Dozens of civilians were killed and wounded, including children and women, on Tuesday when rebel rocket fire targeted a hospital in Syria's battered city of Aleppo, Syrian national TV reported.

The rockets targeted the hospital in the al-Muhafaza district in government-controlled part in western Aleppo.

The attack is the latest in a series of intensified shelling Tuesday on western Aleppo.

Earlier in the day, pro-government Sama TV said eight people were killed and over 40 others wounded by renewed shelling on several districts west of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, an eye witness reached by Xinhua over the phone in Aleppo said he couldn't leave his home on Tuesday due to the intensity of the shelling.

The al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and like-minded groups intensified their assaults by shelling on government-controlled parts of the city, trying to advance from eastern Aleppo to the western part of the city.

The Syrian army said it had repelled the attacks, but the rebel shelling continued, prompting government airstrikes on rebel-held areas.

The intensified violence reflects the gap between the government and the rebels, as well as the broader international differences between the countries that support different parties to the conflict.

The Syrian government side says that a truce backed by both the U.S. and Russia, which went into effect last February, has been violated by the attacking rebels in Aleppo.

Washington and Moscow agreed on Friday on a "regime of silence" to take place near the capital Damascus and the northwestern province of Latakia to shore up the falling truce.

Aleppo, however, was not included, and the civilians were the ones paying the price.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group, over 244 civilians, including 43 children and 27 women, were killed by rebel shelling on government areas and government airstrikes on rebel-held areas over the past 10 days.

Source: XINHUA