1st LD: Car bomb goes off in Syria's Aleppo, causalities feared

A car bomb went off at a government-controlled district in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, leaving an unknown number of causalities, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported.

The car bomb tore through the Jamiyet al-Zahra' neighborhood in Aleppo, amid intensified clashes and attempts by the jihadi groups to storm that district.

The explosion came as rebels intensified their rocket attacks on government-controlled areas in Aleppo on Tuesday.

The state news agency, SANA, said at least 20 people were killed and dozens of others wounded on Tuesday.

The rebels have recently intensified their assaults by shelling on government-controlled parts of the city, trying to advance from eastern Aleppo to the western part of the city.

The Syrian army said it had repelled the attacks, but the rebel shelling continued, prompting government airstrikes on rebel-held areas.

The intensified violence reflects the gap between the government and the rebels, as well as the broader international differences between the countries that support different parties to the conflict.

The Syrian government side says that a truce backed by both the U.S. and Russia, which went into effect last February, has been violated by the attacking rebels in Aleppo.

Washington and Moscow agreed on Friday on a "regime of silence" to take place near the capital Damascus and the northwestern province of Latakia to shore up the falling truce.

Aleppo, however, was not included, and the civilians were the ones paying the price.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group, over 244 civilians, including 43 children and 27 women, were killed by rebel shelling on government areas and government airstrikes on rebel-held areas over the past 10 days. Endit