DHAKA: At least 15 people are reported to have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of air strikes on rebel-held areas in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

One of the strikes hit near the Bayan hospital in the eastern Shaar district, activists and a monitoring group said, reports the BBC.

Video footage, purportedly of the aftermath, showed bodies being pulled from burning and destroyed buildings.

It was not clear who was responsible, but government forces are seeking to regain control of the divided city.

In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised to retake ‘every inch’ of the country from his opponents.

Aleppo, he said, would be ‘the graveyard where the hopes and dreams’ of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - a key backer of the rebels - would be ‘buried’.

The speech to Syria’s newly-elected parliament was Assad’s first major address since UN-brokered indirect peace talks in Geneva broke down in April.

BDST: 2156 HRS, JUN 08, 2016
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