The Latest: Activists: Aleppo airstrikes kill at least 12
By Associated Press
Sep 30, 2016 10:58 AM CDT
In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, shows a member of Civil Defense displays the cluster bombs in the Khan Sheikhoun neighborhood of Idlib, Syria, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. The U.S. and Russia escalated their war of words over Syria Thursday as government...   (Associated Press)

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on Syria (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

The Syrian Civil Defense group and a Syrian monitoring group are reporting that airstrikes on rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo have killed at least 12 people.

The Civil Defense says they have recovered 24 bodies on Friday, adding that search and rescue operations are continuing to pull more people trapped under the rubble.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday's airstrikes killed 12, adding that the death toll was expected to rise.

Conflicting casualty figures are common in the aftermath of airstrikes in Syria.

Aleppo has been a center of violence in recent months. But since a U.S.-Russia brokered truce ended on Sept. 19, more than 300 people there have been killed.

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6:30 p.m.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has voted to convene a high-level panel to discuss human rights in Syria at its next session, including witness testimonies.

The 47-member body in Geneva passed a resolution Friday by a vote of 26-7 with 14 abstentions that calls for a panel to discuss issues like enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention and the need for accountability for related violations and abuses in Syria.

The resolution also condemned a current military offensive on rebel-held eastern Aleppo "conducted by forces loyal to the Syrian authorities" and urged them to halt immediately the "indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population."

The measure was the latest in a string of resolutions on Syria at the council, which has had a Commission of Inquiry investigating abuses and crimes there since 2011.

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2:30 p.m.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia's involvement in Syria is justified because militants did not manage to capture the capital Damascus thanks to Russia.

Speaking on the first anniversary of its operation in Syria, Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Putin never gave a timeline for how long the bombing mission might last and still won't.

Russia's declared goal was to support the Syrian government of Russia's long-term ally Bashar Assad and Peskov insisted that in that respect the operation has been a success.

If it wasn't for the Russian involvement, the Islamic State group and other "terrorists" would have been "sitting in Damascus," he told reporters.

Regarding figures cited by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on casualties as a result of the airstrikes, he said he would not comment reports by "a group based in the UK"

12:30 p.m.

The U.N. health agency is decrying an "unfathomable" situation for medical care in rebel-held parts of Syria's largest city, pleading for a halt to the violence that has prevented aid and support from entering.

Dr. Rick Brennan, emergency risk director for the World Health Organization, says the security situation is too dangerous for outside medical personnel to enter rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

Speaking Friday to reporters in Geneva, Brennan appeals for permission to evacuate the sick and injured. He says 846 people have been wounded, including 261 children, in the last couple of weeks.

He says fewer than 30 doctors doing work that's "beyond heroic" are now in eastern Aleppo, where at least 250,000 people live.

Human rights advocates say airstrikes by Syria's government and its Russian allies are believed to be behind much of the violence.

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12:00 p.m.

Syria's military and an activist group say government forces have captured a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo a day after regaining control of a Palestinian refugee camp in the city.

The Syrian military said government forces are strengthening their positions in the Handarat refugee camp and took control on Friday of the Kindi hospital.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the hospital is on the northern edge of the city just 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) from a major intersection north of Aleppo known as the Gondol roundabout.

Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in Aleppo for days under the cover of intense airstrikes. Recent violence killed more than 300 people in the city.

State news agency SANA said rebels shelled the government-held part of Aleppo killing four and wounding 10.

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10:00 a.m.

A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria's civil war says a year of Russian airstrikes have killed more than 9,000 people in the war-torn country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Friday the dead include civilians and fighters, among them militants from the Islamic State group and an al-Qaida-linked faction.

On Sept. 30 last year, Russia began an air campaign backing forces of the Syrian President Bashar Assad and turning the balance of power in his favor.

Opposition activists have blamed Russia for the recent air campaign against rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo that has killed more than 200 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished buildings.

The Observatory says that the airstrikes have killed 9,364 people over the past year.