Syrian government reportedly restarts Aleppo strikes; 15 dead in mosque attack

In this image made from video and posted online from Validated UGC, a man leads a woman in tears and child out of the scene after airstrikes hit Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, April 28, 2016.

Syrian rebels shelled a mosque in a government-held area of war-torn Aleppo Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 30, state media reported, as government forces reportedly launched new airstrikes after a morning lull.

State TV said several rockets hit the Malla Khan mosque in the Bab al-Faraj neighborhood -- and its surroundings -- as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers.

At least one person died in the new Syrian airstrikes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The carnage in Aleppo was particularly intense on Wednesday and Thursday, when airstrikes and artillery killed dozens of people, including patients and one of Syria's last pediatricians at a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital.

Aid agencies warned that the contested northern city is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster with the collapse of a two-month cease-fire and stalled peace talks in Switzerland. The Syrian army declared a temporary truce for the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, and the coastal province of Latakia — but not for Aleppo.

What impact the unilateral declaration would have was not immediately clear. It's unlikely the opposition would abide by it after days of government airstrikes and bombardments in Aleppo, The Associated Press reports.

The announcement was read on Syrian state TV on Friday. The army says the cease-fire will go into effect at 1 a.m. on Saturday.

The military statement said it will last 24 hours in Damascus and its suburbs and three days in Latakia.

Opposition activists say that only over the past week, more than 200 civilians have been killed in Aleppo.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said the death toll from the bombing of a hospital and nearby buildings in Aleppo late Wednesday rose to 50, including six medical staff and patients.

The organization, also known by its French acronym MSF, said in a Friday statement that the bombing a day earlier of Quds hospital, in a rebel-held neighborhood of the city, destroyed one of the last remaining places in Aleppo in which "you could still find humanity."

MSF warned that the 250,000 residents in the rebel-held parts of Aleppo are in danger of being completely cut off and left without medical care.

Airstrikes on the hospital drew international condemnation. Muskilda Zancada, head of MSF's Syria mission, said "the sky is falling in Aleppo.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry Friday also condemned the shelling of its consulate in the Syrian city of Aleppo, calling it a "terrorist attack."

The ministry said no one was injured when one mortar hit the consulate grounds and three more exploded just outside the fence the previous afternoon.

All Russian diplomats were transferred out of Aleppo in January 2013, and since then the consulate has been guarded by Syrian citizens.

Russia said it believed the mortar attack had been carried out by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and its allies.

The ministry statement said such attacks should be rebuffed and called for improved coordination between Russia and the United States in their efforts to monitor the partial two-month-old cease-fire.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.