NEW DELHI: More than 500 Syrian civilian have been killed in a single week, as fighting intensifies in Syria between Russian-backed government troops and the opposition.

Figures released by the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a grassroot network of activists in Syria, record 508 civilians killed between August 13 and August 19, including 96 children and 73 women.

The LLC says that a majority of these deaths occurred in Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus, and Hama.

93 civilians were killed in Idlib, 52 in Homs, 51 in Damascus, 38 in Deir Ezzor, and 34 in Hama.

In Aleppo, which has seen intensified fighting over the last few weeks, at least 205 of the total 508 were killed in aerial bombardments of the city’s previously besieged areas. Fighting in Aleppo surged after insurgents embedded in the eastern part of the city broke a stalemate against Syrian military forces and their Russian allies. Russia and Syria responded by stepping up air bombardments of insurgent held areas across the city.

World pressure prompted Syria to propose a 48 hour ceasefire for the delivery of much needed aid to over two million civilians currently trapped in Aleppo, but fighting still continues. The United Nations had welcomed the proposal, with UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, again reiterating that a truce was necessary. "You may wonder what's the good of a truce in such a terrible war. Well, I can assure you and I've seen it in the past that a truce can save lots of lives and is a breath of fresh air for people being besieged," De Mistura said. "A truce can give the possibility for people to stop and think that it is probably best to negotiate because no one is winning and those who are losing their lives are the Syrians."

The fighting briefly caught world attention last week, when an image of a five year old boy injured in an airstrike in Aleppo went viral. News emerged over the weekend that the boy’s brother had died in the violence in Syria. As of now, there is no date or time for the proposed 48 hour ceasefire, with Russia saying that it could begin testing the pauses as early as this week as a “pilot project”. “More precise date and time will be determined after receiving information about the readiness of the convoys from the UN representatives and receiving confirmation of the security guarantees of their safe travel from our American partners,” a Russian defence ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency.

The battle for Aleppo has killed 333 civilians since July 31, when rebels launched a major push to break a government siege of districts under their control. Civilian have been caught in the crossfire, as Syrian and Russian troops fight back, with the LCC saying that residential areas are increasingly being targeted.

The Syrian conflict began in 2011 as an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al Assad, and soon escalated into a full blown civil war. Estimates state that over 280,000 Syrians have been killed in the five years of war, and over four million have been displaced.