ALEPPO: Government and rebel bombardment killed at least 26 civilians on Sunday in Syria’s second city Aleppo as US President Barack Obama urged the conflict’s warring parties to “reinstate” a troubled ceasefire.

Eight weeks into the declared truce between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and non-jihadist rebels, violence has escalated around Aleppo, with dozens killed by government air strikes and rebel rockets.

The surge in fighting and stalled peace talks in Geneva have dimmed hopes that the ceasefire would lay the groundwork for finally resolving Syria’s devastating five-year conflict.

On Sunday, Obama said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart — a key Assad ally — to try to shore up the truce.

“I spoke to President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we could reinstate the cessation of hostilities,” he told reporters in Germany.

After at least 27 reported civilian deaths in regime bombardment across Syria on Saturday, a fresh barrage of air strikes hit Aleppo around midday on Sunday.

Twelve civilians died after a strike hit an open-air fruit and vegetable market, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

A photographer saw a man in a bright-blue cap carrying a shell-shocked, bleeding and barefoot young boy.

Emergency responders, known as White Helmets, said they were “exhausted” by the past three days of bombing in Aleppo city.

“We’re back to working 24-hour shifts after we started working shorter hours because of the truce,” one volunteer said.

According to the Observatory, four more civilians died on Sunday in strikes on other opposition neighbourhoods.

In Aleppo’s western government-held parts, 10 civilians including a woman and two children were killed in the morning by rebel rocket fire, the Observatory said.

While officials have yet to declare the ceasefire dead, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the escalating violence in Aleppo and elsewhere meant it had effectively collapsed.

Foreign troops

In an interview with the BBC aired on Sunday, President Obama warned Western governments should not send troops to topple Assad’s regime.

“Syria has been a heartbreaking situation of enormous complexity, and I don’t think there are any simple solutions,” he said in London.

“It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain, or a combination of Western states to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime.”

He urged all parties “to sit down at the table and try to broker a transition”.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2016