Russia said on Thursday it was ready to halt fire for 48-hour periods in Aleppo from next week, following U.N. calls to extend humanitarian pauses to deliver aid.

"Russia's defense ministry is ready to support the proposal by U.N. envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura regarding the introduction of weekly 48-hour 'humanitarian pauses' (in Aleppo)," defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Syrian government aircraft bombed Kurdish positions in the divided northeastern city of Hasakeh on Thursday, the first such strikes against a Kurdish-held area of Syria, a monitor said.

At least six Kurdish positions were hit, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Six long-range bombers from Russia on Sunday destroyed Islamic State group weapon stores around the jihadist stronghold of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, the defense ministry in Moscow said.

Russian air strikes on the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa in northern Syria on Thursday killed at least 30 people, including civilians and jihadists, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 raids hit the city and its outskirts, wounding at least 70 others.

Syrian regime forces and rebel factions sent hundreds of reinforcements to Aleppo on Monday as opposition fighters announced an all-out offensive to take the country's second city.

The battle for Syria's former economic powerhouse is intensifying after an opposition advance at the weekend broke through a three-week government siege of the city's rebel-held east, dealing a major setback to regime troops.

The Islamic State jihadist group has executed at least 24 civilians after seizing a village in northern Syria from a U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, a monitor said Friday.

A massive bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday in the Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Qamishli.

It was the largest and deadliest attack to hit the city since the beginning of Syria's conflict in March 2011.

Syrian government forces on Tuesday seized a rebel-held neighborhood on the northwest outskirts of Aleppo, tightening their siege of the opposition-held parts of the city, a monitor said.

The U.N.'s Syria envoy voiced hope Tuesday that peace talks could restart next month, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there had been "progress" in efforts to salvage an urgently-needed ceasefire.

The Syrian regime announced Sunday that it is "ready to continue the Syrian-Syrian dialogue without any preconditions, in the hopes that this dialogue will lead to a comprehensive solution."