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This heartbreaking picture shows the body of a mother killed in an airstrike cradling her dead baby next to the body of her young son.

The bodies can be seen covered in blood and dust after they were buried in rubble during an aerial bombardment in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Rescuers found the body of the mother with her arms still wrapped around her baby.

The body of the woman's young son was lying next to them.

The city has been decimated by more than 600 airstrikes since an announcement of a major offensive by the Syrian government on Thursday.

(Image: Reuters)

In harrowing scenes yesterday, one five-year-old girl was pulled from the wreckage of a building by her ponytail while screaming in fear.

Little Rawan Alowsh was the only survivor of a blast which killed her mother, father and four siblings.

Just hours later a baby was uncovered by rescuers frantically digging through concrete and soil.

The tiny child was lifted from the ground and rushed to hospital as the search for survivors becomes increasingly desperate.

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Aleppo is home to 250,000 people and has been under constant government siege since September. Rebels have held the city since 2012.

Residents of the rebel-held eastern city say it is being subjected to the most ferocious bombardment of the war.

(Image: Getty)

Rebel officials said heavy air strikes today hit at least four areas of the opposition-held east, home to more than 250,000 people.

Rebels say the strikes are mostly being carried out by Russian warplanes.

The attack has drawn on ordnance more destructive than anything previously used against the area and many buildings have been destroyed, residents say. Images of blast sites show craters several metres wide and deep.

"There are planes in the sky now," Ammar al Selmo, the head of Civil Defence in the opposition-held east, told Reuters from Aleppo on Saturday morning. "Our teams are responding but are not enough to cover this amount of catastrophe."

A Syrian military source told Reuters the operation announced late on Thursday was continuing according to plan.

(Image: Getty) (Image: Getty)

Asked about the weapons being used, the military source said the army was using precise weapons "suitable for the nature of the targets being struck, according to the type of fortifications", such as tunnels and bunkers, and "specifically command centres".

A senior official in an Aleppo-based rebel faction, the Levant Front, told Reuters the weapons appeared designed to bring down entire buildings.

"Most of the victims are under the rubble because more than half the civil defence has been forced out of service," he said.=

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that reports on the war, said it had documented 47 deaths since Friday, including five children. Selmo said the toll was more than 100.

"The raids are intense and continuous," Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.

The Syrian army says it is targeting rebel positions in the city and denies hitting civilians.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a revival of a ceasefire in Syria depended on all sides involved and not only on "Russia's unilateral concessions".

"One can only speak about the ceasefire revival only on the collective basis," he said in an interview for the TV news show.

AT least 25 people died yesterday as warplanes rained down bombs on rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

As the death toll surged the city’s water system was further disabled – leaving 250,000 at risk of disease from contaminated supplies.

Syrian and Russian jets were feared to be involved in the air strikes, which came after Friday’s blitz left 50 dead. Residents said many buildings had been completely destroyed in yesterday’s attacks.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll is expected to rise considerably because people remain trapped under the rubble.

Unicef’s Justin Forsyth said: “Aleppo is slowly dying. The water is being cut off and bombed – it’s just the latest act of inhumanity.”