AFP

ALEPPO SYRIAN troops and rebels fought fierce battles on Friday in the city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds queued for bread, AFP correspondents said.

They said around a dozen people were killed and 20 wounded at the bakery in the increasingly desperate city. At least three children were among the dead in the eastern Tariq al Bab district of Syria’s commercial capital.

And troops repelled a rebel attack on Aleppo’s international airport, state news agency SANA reported.

“Mercenary terrorists” had tried to attack it but the “army hit back and killed most of them.” Rebels vowed to fight on in Aleppo, a day after being driven out of a key district under heavy shellfire.

In the latest clashes, Aleppo’s historic Citadel, part of a Unesco-listed world heritage site, was heavily damaged by bombing, according to the opposition.

The violence raged on as world powers prepared to name veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as their new envoy to seek a peaceful and politically workable end to a 17-month uprising that has cost more than 21,000 lives.

A rebel commander, Hossam Abu Mohammed, said his men were still fighting in parts of Aleppo’s southwestern district of Salaheddin after most fled on Thursday.