At least 14 civilians were killed late Wednesday in a Syrian regime strike on a hospital and nearby residential building in the city of Aleppo, civil defence volunteers known as the White Helmets said.

The volunteers told AFP: "At least 14 persons were killed tonight by airstrikes targeting al Quds Hospital and a nearby residential building in al Sukkari neighbourhood in eastern Aleppo."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the raids were carried out by "regime airplanes".

A doctor who was the only paediatrician in the rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo was among the dead, an AFP correspondent said.

Video footage recorded by AFP showed the destruction inside the hospital, aid workers transporting the victims in ambulances and a man holding a child weeping.

The Syrian Observatory added that two hospital guards and a doctor were among the dead.

The monitoring group also said that 11 people were killed in western parts of Aleppo on Wednesday. State news agency SANA blamed the rocket and gunfire on Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and its allies.

In eastern Aleppo earlier on Wednesday, five civilians were killed in two neighbourhoods, according to the White Helmets. An AFP correspondent said that regime aircraft targeted one area with barrel bombs and another with missiles.

Following a lull in fighting after the ceasefire took effect on February 27, violence has intensified in recent days, with more than 100 civilians reported dead in air strikes, shelling and rocket fire since Friday.

Once Syria's commercial hub, northwestern Aleppo has been divided between rebel control in the east and government forces in the west since 2012.

The fighting has put the ceasefire in jeopardy and overshadowed a new round of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva that were entering a recess on Wednesday.

More than 270,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions been forced from their homes since the conflict erupted in 2011.

Source :AFP