Syria announces new offensive, diplomats fail to renew truce

Warplanes mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of Syria's commercial hub and largest city, dealing a fresh blow to efforts to end Syrian civil war that has raged since 2011.

Rebel officials and rescue workers said incendiary bombs were among the weapons that rained down on Aleppo. Hamza al-Khatib, the director of a hospital in the rebel-held east, told Reuters 45 people were killed.

"It's as if the planes are trying to compensate for all the days they didn't drop bombs" during the ceasefire, Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the civil defense rescue service in opposition-held eastern Aleppo, told Reuters.

Moscow and Washington announced the ceasefire on Sept. 9. But the agreement, possibly the final bid for a breakthrough on Syria before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, collapsed like all previous efforts to halt a 5-1/2-year-old war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and made half the nation homeless.

Syrian state media announced the new offensive and quoted the army's military headquarters in Aleppo urging civilians in eastern parts of the city to avoid areas where "terrorists" were located and said it had prepared exit points for those who want to flee, including rebels.