A man helps a boy over rubble at a site hit by what activists said was a missile fired last night by forces of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo’s al-Bayyada neighbourhood January 2, 2015.

At least 19 people were killed overnight by Syrian rebel fire on government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo, a monitor said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included at least five children, three of whom were killed with their mother when a rocket hit the car they were in.

The Britain-based group said at 32 people were wounded in Thursday night’s violence in the western part of the city.

Once Syria’s economic hub, Aleppo has been ravaged by fighting that began there in mid-2012.

The city is divided with government forces controlling the western part and rebels controlling the east.

However, government forces have advanced steadily around the eastern outskirts of the city, threatening to besiege opposition-held districts.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, according to the Observatory.

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