After Aleppo cease-fire, Syrian forces gain ground

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces and their allies captured strategic high ground Monday in embattled Aleppo as Russia — a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad — said it was not planning more “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in the city’s eastern, rebel-held districts.

The fighting in Aleppo came as air strikes hit towns in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 13 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees.

Government troops launched a fresh offensive and on Monday took the hilltop of Bazo on the southern edge of Aleppo, near military bases, and shelled the rebel neighborhoods, according to opposition activists.

A pro-opposition media outlet circulated footage of a powerful and hard-line Islamist rebel coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah announcing that the campaign to break the government’s siege of the city’s east would begin “within hours.”