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Syria's Aleppo hit by deadly suicide bombing

At least 25 killed and scores wounded after bomber blows himself up at army outpost in divided city, rights group says.

US President Barrack Obama 

A suicide bomber from Syria's al-Qaeda offshoot - the Nusra Front - has blown himself up at an army outpost in a contested neighbourhood of northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 25 soldiers and allied militia, a monitoring group says.

According to the UK based Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence across the country, the Monday blast in the city, divided among rebel groups and the government forces, also injured scores.

The Observatory continued that the explosion from the blast was heard across the city where several armed groups had recently launched an offensive to control the remaining western parts of the city in government hands.

There was heavy bombardment of rebel-held portions of Jamiyat al Zahra district, where rebels had gained ground and brought them closer to the heart of government controlled parts of the city, which was before the 2011 civil war the country's main industrial and commercial hub, Rebel websites have said.

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The attack comes as President Barack Obama pledged to increase US support for the moderate opposition in Syria's civil war, and said that the US-led coalition battling fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was "intensifying" its campaign against the armed group's base in Syria.

"And I have made it clear to my team that we will do more to train and equip the moderate opposition in Syria," Obama, speaking at the Pentagon, said.

Barrack Obama said that the US would continue to crack down on ISIL's illicit finance operations around the world. The US president noted that there are no current plans to send additional US troops overseas; repeating that the fight against the armed group would not be quick.

Mr Obama reiterated that with a strong partner on the ground in Iraq, the US and its partners would be successful in defeating the armed group.

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