Beirut: Syria’s government resumed air strikes on remaining rebel-held territory in east Aleppo on Friday with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov saying bombing will continue as long as rebels remain in the devastated city.

“After a humanitarian pause, (the strikes) have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo,” Mr Lavrov told journalists at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A day earlier at the foreign ministers’ meeting in Hamburg, Germany, Mr Lavrov had told reporters that the Syrian army had halted fighting in eastern Aleppo amid an operation to evacuate civilians.

Asked about the comment Friday, as Aleppo was again under heavy bombardment from the air, Mr Lavrov said, “I did not say that the military operations were completely stopped, I said they were suspended for a certain time to allow civilians wishing to leave to do so. “Everyone understands it, our American partners understand it.”

But Russia’s top diplomat also accused the American side of “strange” behaviour for allegedly flip-flopping on their own proposal which involved allowing rebels to leave Aleppo if they first give up their heavy weapons.

Under the plan being considered between the two sides, he said, both the disarmed fighters and civilians could leave the devastated city through corridors to either the city of Idlib or to the Turkish border.