LIVE BLOG: Battle for Aleppo

Two bakeries were destroyed by Syrian government warplanes after they were targeted in the early hours of this morning. 

The bakeries, which are both based in the Aleppo countryside, provided bread for more than 70,000 Syrians in the northern province. 

Two of Aleppo's largest hospitals were put "out of service" after they were attacked in the early hours of this morning. 

More than a dozen people were reported to have been killed in the attack and 90 trapped in the basement of the M2 hospital. 

The M10 hospital, which is Aleppo's largest hospital was also attacked and is now out of service. 

Residents told MEE that they suspect the hospital attacks were in preparation for the Syrian government's ground offensive to take control of rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo. 

Read more here. 

Moscow is prepared to relaunch talks with the United States on the crisis in Syria, the Russian defence ministry said Wednesday, hours after Washington threatened to suspend its cooperation on the issue.

"On orders of the Russian president, we are ready to continue joint work with our American partners on the Syrian issue," and to send experts to Geneva to "relaunch consultations," the defence ministry said.

Escalating violence in Syria, particularly against rebel-held Aleppo city, means a political solution to the conflict is "no longer a viable option," an opposition official said on Wednesday.

Muwaffaq Nyrabia, vice-president of the key National Coalition movement, said the country's rebels were "considering all options to defend the Syrian people against the Russian aggression on Syria".

"A political solution is no longer a viable option in the current climate," he said, according to a statement issued by the National Coalition.

There was no official statement from the body as a whole, which is the leading political opposition group in exile.

The US has resolved to prevent the fall of Aleppo and is preparing to allow its Gulf allies to flood the city with shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles, according to a source with close contacts to rebel forces.

A source on Tuesday told Middle East Eye that the US had confirmed it would allow the two Gulf states to begin shipments.

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John Kerry has threatened to cut all contact with Russia over Syria unless attacks on Aleppo are stopped. This latest development after two major hospitals in East Aleppo were forced to go "out of service".

More to follow... 

Outgoing UN chief Ban Ki-Moon described the situation in Aleppo as becoming "worst than a slaughterhouse". 

Speaking about the escalation in fighting in the Syrian city, he described the actions of the Syrian and Russian air-force as being tantamount to "war crimes". 

According to UNICEF 96 children were killed and 223 injured in the last six days in Aleppo. The agency also said that many were not being treated due to the scarcity of supplies and doctors. 

Six people were killed near the M2 hospital while waiting for bread in rebel held east Aleppo. The news comes after two of Aleppo's major hospitals were hit by airstrikes and artillery shelling in the early hours of this morning. 

Assad's army has been sending text messages to the residents of Aleppo, encouraging them to shun the "terrorists."

Translation: "Our people in Aleppo: Save your lives by renouncing the terrorists and isolating them from you - SAA (Syrian Arab Army)

Our people in Aleppo: We want to save you and they want to kill you: Throw them out of your midst - SAA

Our people in Aleppo: Terrorism is inevitably fleeing, so do not be a casualty of their terror - SAA

Our people in Aleppo: The state guarantees the safety of its children who shun terrorism - SAA

Aleppo is for all its people, help us to save the civilians from the hands of the terrorists - SAA"

The US State Department said on Tuesday it was providing an additional $364m in humanitarian assistance to help Syrians caught up in the country's civil war, bringing total US humanitarian spending for Syria to about $5.9bn.

Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard said the funding would help provide food, shelter, safe drinking water, medical care and other support for millions of Syrian refugees and the communities that host them.

Richard told a State Department briefing about three-quarters of the additional funding would help people still inside Syria and the rest would assist Syrians who have fled the country.

She also said the United States had admitted some 85,000 refugees over the past fiscal year, which ends 30 September. That figure included about 12,500 Syrian refugees, exceeding the administration's goal of 10,000, she said.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the push for additional humanitarian aid funds came in part because of deteriorating conditions in Aleppo after the collapse of a ceasefire sponsored by the United States and Russia.

The forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have launched a massive push against rebel-held areas of the city, where some 250,000 civilians are believed to be trapped. Intensive bombing has killed hundreds of people, many of whom died in buildings collapsed by bunker-buster bombs.

"Until the past few weeks we felt like we were on a firm path towards a possible diplomatic resolution to this. We still believe that's possible," Toner told a briefing.

"That doesn't mean we're not mindful ... of the tremendous humanitarian suffering that's going on right now in Aleppo. And that's why we're working so hard to ramp up our assistance," he added.

While saying the United States continued to seek a diplomatic resolution of the problem, he left the door open to other action.

"We'll continue to weigh all options. Those discussions are ongoing. I don't want to rule anything out, but right now we're focused on the diplomatic one," Toner said.

He noted the United States has warned that failure to achieve a ceasefire could lead to an escalation of the conflict.

"We cannot dictate what other countries ... may or may not decide to do in terms of supporting certain groups within Syria," Toner said. "You may have a further deterioration on either side ... and by deterioration I mean more arming and more conflict between them, and intensification of the conflict."

Life in Aleppo will become impossible within weeks under relentless Russian and Syrian government air strikes, the head of the renowned White Helmets volunteer rescue force said on Tuesday.

But the quarter of a million civilians trapped in the besieged rebel-held east of the Syrian city believe they will be massacred if they flee or if the city falls, Raed Saleh told AFP.

And the White Helmets, members of a civil defense group that has won international acclaim for their work digging the wounded from bombed-out buildings, fear they will be rounded up and shot.

"The civilians there would seize any opportunity to escape, to go wherever they could go," Saleh told AFP in Washington, where he is on a frustrating quest for international support.

"But nothing is available to provide safety and protection for those civilians. We are worried that they are facing massacre or the kidnapping or the arrest of many of them."

Users have taken to social media using the hashtag #HolocaustAleppo to raise awareness of how people are sufferring under bombardment.