Government forces make gains in Syria's Aleppo

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Wednesday that the government in Syria had been launching a counterattack on areas captured by rebels in the past two days.

"Since the attack began and until Tuesday midnight, 40 civilians have been killed on both sides of Aleppo, among them 22 children," Abdel Rahman said. 

According to the Observatory, about 50 rebels and dozens of regime troops have been killed since the assault kicked off on Sunday.

Syrian state-run radio confirmed that government troops had started a "wide-scale counterattack" against rebels in south-west Aleppo.

Government troops managed to seize two hilltops, including Telat al-Mahroukat and the villages of Khweriz and al-Amriyeh, which the rebels took control of two days ago, Al Jazeera reports citing the Observatory. 

Meanwhile, the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said on Wednesday that over the past week, Syrian government forces launched deadly air strikes against six hospitals in and around Aleppo.

All six facilities were reportedly hit between 23 July and  31 July were major hospitals in Aleppo governorate, the group said.

"Since June, we've seen increasing reports of attacks on civilians in Aleppo and strikes on the region's remaining medical infrastructure. Each of these assaults constitutes a war crime," said Widney Brown, PHR's director of programmes.

"Destroying hospitals is tantamount to signing thousands of death warrants for people now stranded in eastern Aleppo."