PressTV

More than 40 people, including civilians, have reportedly been killed in recent rocket attacks carried out by foreign-backed militants in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo.

A representative of Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria said a hundred others were also injured in the Saturday shelling by al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front militant group, Russia's media reported.

"Armed units of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group delivered a massive strike on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood, al-Muhafaza and al-Zahra and on al-Nayrab airport in Aleppo,” the representative said.

He added that terrorists also hit the Syrian army position in the town of Handrat.

A police station and a number of residential buildings were also destroyed as a result of shelling of the Sheikh Maqsood quarter.

The monitoring center said more than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, adding that the attacks are being carried out from the areas where so-called moderate opposition forces are stationed.

Citing civilians in Aleppo, the center said armed groups partly made up of Turkish soldiers had appeared north of the city.

It said “more than 2,000 militants from different terrorist organizations and groups of the so-called 'moderate opposition' are concentrated in the region of Sheikh Maqsoud,” northern Aleppo.

Meanwhile, a Syrian military source said at least 40 terrorists with the so-called Ahrar al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group were killed during clashes with Syrian forces in Hama's northern countryside on Saturday.

An armored vehicle and two heavy machinegun-equipped vehicles belonging to the terrorists were also destroyed during a military operation in Maa’n.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

Damascus accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of funding and arming terrorist groups, including Daesh, operating inside the country.