The residents of Aleppo as well as government troops and rival foreign-backed militants have been without water for a week, the opposition-linked monitoring group said.

According to the monitoring group, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front terrorists have cut water supplies from a pump distributing to both the insurgent-held east and government-held west of Aleppo.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman called the move "a crime."

Last month, opposition forces cut the electricity supply to government-liberated areas of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside.

Once home to some 2.5 million residents and considered Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been divided between government and foreign-backed insurgents control since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012.

At least one million people have been displaced from the city since foreign-sponsored militants stormed it.

Insurgents regularly shell government-liberated areas of the city in the west.

The Observatory said the week of water cuts had forced residents to queue in front of wells to collect water and warned that some people were drinking unclean water risking the potential spread of disease.

RA/MB