Diplomatic pressure is mounting to extend a ceasefire in Syria to Aleppo province after 10 days of fierce bombing that has killed hundreds of people there.

Russian officials said on Sunday they were calling on the Syrian regime to include Aleppo in a temporary truce already in place in Latakia and around the capital, Damascus.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrived in Geneva in a bid to salvage stumbling peace talks, called for a "countrywide" cessation of hostilities.

"We are talking directly to the Russians, even now," Kerry said, after a week in which Moscow refused to rein it its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The UN Security Council Resolution calls for a full country, countrywide, cessation and also for all of the country to be accessible to humanitarian assistance."

Hundreds of people, including many children, have been killed in Aleppo, where regime forces are battling opposition forces for control.

Russia maintained for days that it would not urge Assad's forces to stop air raids on the city as they were targeting groups not covered by the ceasefire, which took effect in late February.
But on Sunday, there seemed to be a change in tone.

"Currently active negotiations are under way to establish a 'regime of silence' in Aleppo province," Lieutenant-General Sergei Kuralenko was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, using a term the Russian and Syrian militaries have used to mean ceasefire.

Ceasefire talks in Geneva have been threatened by the Syrian opposition saying it would leave if the air strikes on Aleppo did not stop.

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from the Swiss city, said opposition delegates were cynical about Russia's role in ‘peace’ efforts.

"The opposition will tell you the Russians aren't here because they are interested in the talks and are instead interested in the military option," Bays said.

An Al Jazeera source in Aleppo said on Sunday that government forces dropped barrel bombs in the Hritan, Kafr Dael, Bab al-Haded and Kastelo neighborhoods.

Most of the fighting was concentrated in the countryside in an apparent attempt to cut off opposition-held areas from supply routes on the Turkish border.
Hospitals have also been bombed.

"Aleppo has been experiencing extreme conflict for four years now and 95 percent of the medical staff in the city has quite understandably already fled," Sam Taylor of the MSF told Al Jazeera from Jordan.

"There are only 70 to 80 doctors in Aleppo. That's a ridiculously small amount of medical staff trying to deal with enormous amount of trauma injuries.

At least 253 civilians, including 49 children, have died in shelling, rocket fire and air strikes in Aleppo since the surge in fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The Arab League is weighing an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke rises after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria April 29, 2016.

Al-Jazeera