Syria: Aleppo hospital attacked by rebels

• At least 19 people killed in government-held areas as fighting between army and rebels flares.

State media said three women were killed inside the hospital

At least three people have been killed in a rebel rocket attack on a hospital in the city of Aleppo. 

The attack was part of a shelling that left at least 19 people dead in government-controlled areas of the city on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. 

Government forces carried out air strikes on rebel-held areas, including the Sakkour neighbourhood, after the attacks.

Syria's Ikhbariya news said three women had been killed and 17 injured inside the hospital in the Muhafaza neighbourhood.

"[Dozens] martyred and wounded in rockets fired by terrorists at al-Dabbit Hospital," a news flash carried on state TV said.

The army said rebels had launched a widespread attack on civilian areas and hit the hospital.

It accused groups including al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam of being behind the shelling.  

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported casualties at the hospital, adding that the building had been heavily damaged. 

The UK-based group said rebel shelling of government-held areas killed at least 19 people, including three children.

Several hospitals and clinics have previously been hit by deadly air strikes on rebel-held areas of the city.

The latest violence adds to a toll of more than 250 people killed in less than two weeks across the city. 

The Syrian opposition has accused the government of "war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Aleppo as barrel bombs have been dropped on the city and surrounding areas.

The latest attack comes as diplomatic pressure is growing for Aleppo to be included in a ceasefire.

The UN special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Tuesday he wanted to focus on bringing a cessation of hostilities in Syria back on track at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

Lavrov said he expected to have a fruitful conversation, adding that Russia and the US were also working on resolving the Syria crisis.

De Mistura's meeting with Lavrov comes a day after he met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva.

The US and Moscow, a close ally of the Syrian government, are considered key to resolving the five-year war that de Mistura estimates has killed about 400,000 people.