BEIRUT, Lebanon — Government soldiers made advances in the center of the besieged city of Aleppo on Tuesday, as heavy aerial bombardments by Syria and its ally Russia extended into a fifth day, state-run media organizations said.

Syrian state television reported that troops loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad had captured the rebel-held neighborhood of Farafra, near the city’s medieval citadel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organization based in London, confirmed that government forces had pushed into the center of Aleppo as part of their siege of rebel-held areas in the eastern part of what was once Syria’s commercial capital.