ALEPPO: US President Barack Obama on Sunday called for Syria's warring parties to reinstate a troubled ceasefire, as regime and rebel bombardments killed 26 civilians in the flashpoint city of Aleppo.
Eight weeks into the declared truce between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-militant rebels, violence has escalated around Aleppo, with dozens killed by government air strikes and rebel rockets.
The surge in fighting and stalled peace talks in Geneva have dimmed hopes that the ceasefire would lay the groundwork for finally resolving Syria's devastating five-year conflict.
On Sunday, Obama said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart -- a key Assad ally -- to try to shore up the truce.
"I spoke to President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we could reinstate the cessation of hostilities," he told reporters in Germany.
The president was Monday set to announce plans to send up to 250 more military trainers to Syria, intensifying US assistance to rebels, a senior administration official said.
An EU spokesperson also issued a statement urging the US and Russia as brokers of the ceasefire "to bring the maximum influence to bear in order to end these breaches of the agreement".
After at least 27 civilian deaths were reported in regime bombardments across Syria on Saturday, a fresh barrage of air strikes hit Aleppo on Sunday.
Twelve civilians died when a strike hit an open-air fruit and vegetable market, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
An AFP photographer saw a man in a bright-blue cap carrying a shell-shocked, bleeding and barefoot young boy.
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