Aleppo has seen some of the worst of the recent fighting
Violence is continuing in Syria, with opposition activists saying that a warplane may have killed as many as 25 people in a strike in Aleppo province.
In Damascus, a bomb left at least five people dead and many more wounded in the Jaramana area of the city.
Meanwhile, speaking to the BBC, the new international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said he viewed his new mission as near-impossible.
He is expected to visit Syria and meet President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday.
The explosion in Damascus targeted the predominantly Druze and Christian area of Jaramana
Separately, the head of the Red Cross was travelling to Damascus on Monday in an attempt to improve aid access to civilians.
Peter Maurer said in a statement that "an adequate humanitarian response is required to keep pace" with the worsening violence.
In Aleppo, human rights groups said several women and children were among the 25 victims when a building was hit in the town of al-Bab.
Al-Bab, just to the north-east of Aleppo, appears to be largely in rebel hands, and has been heavily pounded by government forces in recent weeks, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Lebanon.
Increasingly, as the conflict deepens, the regime has made fuller use of its air power - attack helicopters and fixed-wing jets - to support its ground forces as they try to root out the lightly-armed rebels from towns, cities and villages all over the country, our correspondent says.
In the car bombing in the Damascus suburb, one building was badly damaged and Syrian state news agency Sana reported that women and children were among the victims. Sana blamed "an armed terrorist group" for the attack.
The explosion is the second deadly bombing within a week targeting the predominantly Druze and Christian area of Jaramana.
At least 12 people were killed when a car bomb blew up at a funeral for two people said by opposition activists to have been supporters of President Assad.
'No illusions'
Mr Brahimi, the new UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, was appointed after his predecessor, Kofi Annan, resigned, saying he no longer saw a way to fulfil his mission after his peace plan failed to achieve a meaningful ceasefire.
"I'm coming into this job with my eyes open, and no illusions," Mr Brahimi told the BBC's Lyse Doucet in an interview in New York. "I know how difficult it is - how nearly impossible. I can't say impossible - [it is] nearly impossible.
Mr Brahimi said he had so far failed to see "any cracks" in the "brick wall" that had defeated Mr Annan - an "intransigent" Syrian government, escalating rebel violence and a paralysed UN Security Council, where China and Russia have vetoed several resolutions aimed at putting pressure on Damascus.
He said he would keep Mr Annan's six-point peace plan - now seen by many as irrelevant - in his "tool box" for possible adaptation, but admitted he "had ideas, but no plan yet", apart from talking to as many people as possible.
Addressing the Syrian government, he said the need for political change in Syria was "fundamental and urgent", but he refused to be drawn on whether President Assad should step down, as the opposition and several Western leaders are demanding.
The new international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, tells Lyse Doucet he views his new mission as "nearly impossible"
"Change cannot be cosmetic," he said. "There will be a new order, but I do not know who will be the people in the order. That's for Syrians to decide."
Last month, the United Nations wound up the observer mission that had been tasked with monitoring the ceasefire in Syria under the six-point peace plan negotiated by Mr Annan.
'Massive response'
Western powers are preparing a tough response in case President Assad's government deploys chemical or biological weapons in its civil war, France's foreign minister has said.
Laurent Fabius told French radio: "We are discussing this notably with our American and English partners". If Syria uses such weapons "our response... would be massive and blistering," he is quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Syria's leadership has said the country could use chemical or biological weapons if it were attacked from outside.
Activists say 20,000 people have died since the uprising against the Syrian government began last March.
Human rights groups say August was the most murderous month, with more than 5,000 people killed, according to the pro-rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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