At least 49 civilians, among them five children, have been killed in Syria's contested Aleppo province as rebels and government forces traded indiscriminate fire across the region.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that government airstrikes and shelling on opposition areas in the provincial capital, Aleppo city, and surrounding countryside killed 40 civilians on Saturday. The Local Coordination Committees activist network put the toll in opposition areas at 45 dead.

State media and the Observatory said rebel shelling on government-held districts of Aleppo city killed nine civilians, among them two children. State media said another 22 were injured.

Rebels and pro-government forces are battling for control of Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and its commercial capital.

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