Regime, Russian airstrikes kill 14 in Syria’s Aleppo

By Halit Suleyman

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – At least 14 people were killed and 26 others injured Monday in airstrikes carried out by President Bashar al-Assad regime and Russian warplanes in northwestern Syria’s Aleppo province, according to a pro-opposition civil defense source on the ground.

Ibrahim Abu Leys told Anadolu Agency that the regime and Russian warplanes struck a marketplace in the opposition-held al-Sakhour neighborhood in the war-battered city.

"Several shops in the area were badly damaged,” he said, adding that fire broke out in the area following the attack, but fire engines managed to extinguish it.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.