Syria: Aleppo suffers second day of intense bombings
Warplanes have launched a second day of heavy bombardment in rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo just hours after the Syrian government announced the start of a major offensive.
The Syrian military, backed by the Russian air force, launched the attack at 6am local time following heavy airstrikes on Thursday.
Aleppo is home to an estimated 250,000 people. There is no word on casualties.
The head of the civil defence rescue service in eastern Aleppo, Ammar al Selmo, identified the aircraft flying over the city as Russian and confirmed three of four civil defence buildings were badly damaged.
"What's happening now is annihilation", he said. "Today, we can say our work has stopped because of the lack of fuel, the destruction of the equipment and the intensity of the bombardment".
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 30 airstrikes had targeted different areas of Aleppo from midnight.
The bombings came after the Syria Support Group held a "long, painful and disappointing" meeting on a potential ceasefire.