12 killed in rebel shelling of Syria's Aleppo

Rebel shelling in Syria's battered northern city of Aleppo killed 12 people including a child on Wednesday, state media said.

State television announced "12 martyrs including a child and several wounded after terrorists shelled the Salaheddin" district in the city's regime-controlled west.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 10 civilians including a child had been killed in the rebel shelling.

Since mid-2012, Aleppo has been roughly split between opposition control in the east and government forces in the west.

An AFP correspondent in the city's east said regime warplanes pounded rebel-held districts on Wednesday.

The bombardment came as regime forces fight rebels and jihadists southwest of the battleground city after opposition fighters gained ground there earlier this month, the Observatory said.

There was heavy fighting around the Ramussa area and a nearby military academy on Wednesday, the Britain-based monitor said.

Fighting for Syria's former economic hub has intensified since regime troops seized control of the last supply route into rebel-held areas in mid-July.

After a nearly three-week siege, rebels took Ramussa on August 6, linking up with opposition-held neighbourhoods, in a major blow to fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The Army of Conquest -- an alliance of rebel, Islamist and jihadist forces -- then announced an ambitious bid to capture all of Aleppo, which if successful would be the biggest opposition victory yet in Syria's conflict.

More than 290,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the beginning of Syria's civil war, which started in 2011 with anti-regime protests.

Source: AFP