BEIRUT -- Fierce clashes and air raids on Monday in northern Syria, mainly in the contested city of Aleppo, killed at least 26 people and left scores wounded, according to reports.
Syrian state media and opposition monitoring groups said rebels bombarded government-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, killing eight people and wounding dozens. Later in the day, activists said a government airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood of Bab al-Maqam killed 10 people.
Meanwhile, air raids on a fuel market in northern Idlib province killed at least eight people, including a media activist who had reported for the Al-Jazeera TV channel.
In Aleppo, rebels fired hundreds of shells and rockets, with the most intense clashes near the old quarter and the city's famed citadel. Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, Aleppo has been bitterly contested between the warring sides in Syria's civil war since the summer of 2012.
Government forces repelled an attack near the citadel, according to Syrian state TV and Al-Manar Television, which is run by Lebanon's Hezbollah group. Hezbollah has fighters in Syria battling alongside President Bashar Assad's forces.
State TV said the rebels' shelling of government-held neighborhoods killed at least eight people and wounded about 80. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said opposition fighters fired 300 shells on government-held neighborhoods on Monday alone.
The Observatory later reported that the government air raid on Bab al-Maqam had killed 10.
The city and its suburbs have experienced intense shelling and fighting over the past few days, during which government forces were able to effectively cut the main route into rebel-held neighborhoods. The passageway, known as the Castello road, has been a lifeline to about 300,000 people in the rebel-held part of the city.
The fighting came despite a cease-fire declared by the Syrian military and due to expire at midnight Monday.
In Idlib province, government air raids hit a diesel fuel market in the northwestern village of Termanin. The raids killed at least eight people, including the media activist, Ibrahim Omar, and set several tanker trucks on fire, said the Local Coordination Committees, a monitoring group.
The Observatory also reported on Omar's death but gave a higher death toll, saying the raids killed 14 and wounded dozens. Conflicting reports of death tolls are common after attacks in Syria.
Amateur videos posted online showed firefighters trying to extinguish several burning tanker trucks. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting.
Syria-based activist Ahmad Barbour said Omar had gone on his motorcycle to Termanin to cover the aftermath of an airstrike when a second one hit, killing him instantly. Barbour and the Observatory said the dead also included two civil defense workers.
"The area was hit by several air raids that were minutes apart," Barbour said.
Elsewhere on Monday, members of Prime Minister Imad Khamis' newly elected government took their oath of office with Assad attending the swearing-in ceremony in the capital, Damascus.
A Section on 07/12/2016