Fighting continues in Syria

Despite a UN-backed cease-fire in place for the four day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the fighting between rebels and the Syrian Army continued throughout the weekend in Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

Explosions, mortar attacks and gunfire could be heard on Saturday throughout the city that has been reduced to rubble in many areas as a result of the ongoing civil war.

Media have been caught up in the crossfire as an AP cameraman scurried across the road desperate to avoid being shot by a sniper.

Sniper fire could be heard as he, another member of the press and two Free Syrian Army (FSA) soldiers ran across a road littered with debris on Saturday.

It was unknown if they were the targets of the sniper attacks.

In other parts of the city, FSA soldiers were pointing out alleged sniper positions held by the Syrian Army.

In other suburbs, rubbish and debris burnt on the streets as mortars could be heard in the distance.

Streets remain dark and without street lights as the city functions on an intermittent electricity supply.

On Sunday, Syria's air force fired missiles and dropped barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attacked regime positions as both sides ignored the ceasefire agreement that started on Friday.

The failure to push through a truce so limited in its ambitions, just four days, has been a sobering reflection of the international community's inability to ease 19 months of bloodshed in Syria.

It also suggests that the stalemated civil war will drag on, threatening to draw in Syria's neighbours in this highly combustible region such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Though Syria's death toll has topped 35-thousand, the bloodiest and most protracted crisis of the Arab Spring, the West has been wary of intervening.

There is concern about sparking a wider conflagration because Syria borders Israel and is allied with Iran and the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The Syrian government has accused the rebels of violating the cease-fire from the start. The state-run news agency SANA said opposition fighters carried out attacks in a number of areas, including in Aleppo and the eastern town of Deir el-Zour.

Activists said at least 110 people were killed Sunday, a toll similar to previous daily casualty tolls.

They include 16 who died in an airstrike on the village of al-Barra in northern Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region.