Al Jazeera
Syrian rebels have launched an offensive aimed at breaking the government's siege of eastern Aleppo, where the UN estimates some 300,000 people are trapped with dwindling food and medical supplies.
A rebel military command centre that includes the newly formed group Jabhat Fatah al Sham, the former al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, and Ahrar al Sham said they had taken over army positions in the southwestern government-held parts of the city in the first few hours of launching the battle to break the siege imposed on rebel-held areas.
The Syrian army confirmed on state media that rebels had waged an offensive but said its fighters pushed back insurgents from an airforce artillery base and denied insurgents had captured the Hikma school.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which gathers information from a network of local informants, said rebels and pro-government forces were clashing along several fronts on the outskirts of the divided city.
Government forces closed off the last route to the opposition holdout in early July, replicating siege tactics that it has employed with mixed results throughout the war.
Seizing control would be the biggest victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in five years of fighting, and demonstrate the dramatic shift of fortunes in his favour since Moscow joined the war on his side last year.
The UN's special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, warned on Friday that basic supplies in eastern Aleppo could run out in three weeks.
The Syrian and Russian militaries announced safe corridors for residents who wanted to leave the besieged area on Thursday, but according to the Russian government, only 169 civilians had left by Saturday.
Rights groups have warned that it is illegal to deprive civilians of basic necessities, and that residents should not have to choose between leaving their homes or starving.
Hospitals targetted
In southern Syria, an air strike on a hospital in an opposition-controlled town put the facility out of service Sunday.
The hospital in Jasem was targeted in one of several air strikes to hit the town in Deraa province, located some 50km south of Damascus, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist network.
Air strike hits maternity hospital in Syria's Idlib. The group said six people were killed in the strikes, as it blamed the government.
SOHR said the hospital strike killed a pharmacist and put the facility out of service.
Hospitals are regularly targeted in Syria's war, drawing condemnation from the UN and the international community.
The New York-based Physicians for Human Rights says over 90 percent of attacks on medical facilities in Syria have been carried out by pro-government forces.
"This is just one of many instances where hospitals have been targeted in Syria. And at some point we have to say this is enough and people have to be held to account," Sanjayan Srikanthan, Deputy Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee, told Al Jazeera.
"Red lines have been declared by the international community and red lines have been ignored."
Push for peace talks
In the capital, Damascus, Ramzy Ramzy, the UN's deputy special envoy for Syria, reiterated the UN's intent to resume talks between the government and the opposition in late August, saying he discussed a political transition process with Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
The opposition has demanded that President Bashar Assad step down, after the harsh government crackdown on protests in 2011 sparked a catastrophic civil war.
Whether the opposition and the international community will agree to have Assad rule during a transition period or beyond is a key sticking point in negotiations.
"The minister confirmed the intention of the Syrian government to participate in these talks once they are held," said Ramzy.
De Mistura was simultaneously meeting with the Iranian deputy foreign minister in Tehran, a close ally to the Damascus government.
In Syria's north, a US-backed, Kurdish-led fighting force managed to secure control of 40 percent of Manbij, a vital satellite for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group's de facto capital in Raqqa, according to the SOHR.
The latest advance by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) opened the way for some 2,300 additional civilians to evacuate the town, the monitor said.
A spokesman for the SDF, Sherfan Darwish, said between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians have been released from ISIL control over the course of the campaign for the town, now entering its third month. He said the SDF controlled nearly three-quarters of Manbij.
De Mistura estimated in April that 400,000 people have been killed in the five years of bloody civil war.