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 Syrian state media said the army would abide by a "regime of calm"
in the city that came into effect at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT on Wednesday)
for 48 hours.
But the army again blamed Islamist insurgents for violating the
agreement overnight by what it called indiscriminate shelling of
some government-held residential areas of the divided city.
President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday his country would not
accept less than an outright victory against rebels in the northern
Syrian city of Aleppo and across Syria, state media reported.
[L5N1821PX]
In a telegram sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he
thanked Moscow for its military support, Assad said the army would
not accept less than "attaining final victory" and "crushing the
aggression" in its fight against the rebels.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least
one person was killed in rebel shelling overnight of the Midan
neighborhood on the government side of the city. State media said
rockets hit the New Aleppo district.
 A resident contacted in the rebel-held eastern part of the city said
although warplanes were flying overnight, there were none of the
intense raids seen during more than 10 days of aerial bombing.
People in several districts ventured out onto the streets where more
shops than normal had opened, the resident of al Shaar neighborhood
said.
Another resident said civilians in several districts sensed a
general trend toward calm.
"From last night it was positive and my wife went out to shop and
shops opened and people breathed. We did not hear the shelling and
bombing we had gotten accustomed to," Sameh Tutunji, a merchant
said.
"Enough of this daily killing after more than 10 days," he added.
A rebel source also said that despite intermittent firing across the
city's main front lines, fighting had subsided and no army shelling
of residential areas had been heard.
The only intense fighting reported was in the southern Aleppo
countryside near the town of Khan Touman, where Syria's al Qaeda
offshoot Nusra Front is dug in close to where Iranian backed
militias maintain a stronghold, a rebel source said.
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Rebels also said Syrian helicopters dropped barrel bombs on rebel
held Dahyat al-Rashdeen al Junobi, situated northwest of the city
and near Jamiyat al Zahraa area that saw a major rebel ground
assault Wednesday that failed after their positions were pounded by
warplanes.[L5N1812KR]
The army however said rebels continued shelling of Jamiyat al Zahraa
after they were routed.
The surge in bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the
civil war, wrecked the first major "cessation of hostilities"
agreement of the war, sponsored by Washington and Moscow, which had
held since February.
A spokesman for the mainstream Syrian opposition said the
Saudi-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) supported the deal but
wanted a cessation of hostilities that would cover all of Syria, not
just limited to Aleppo. It blamed the government for violating the
truce.
Separately, there was no let-up in fighting in other parts of Syria.
Syrian state media said at least six people were killed and scores
injured in a village in the eastern Homs countryside where Islamic
State militants operate after a suicide bomber blew himself in the
center. It did not identify the bomber.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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