Syria: Regime airstrike kills 3 civilians in Aleppo

By Khaled Suleiman

Aleppo, Syria, (AA) - Three civilians were killed on Saturday and 13 others injured by regime airstrikes on opposition-held areas in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo province, according to a local civil defense official.

Regime warplanes dropped fuel-air weapons, also known as “vacuum bombs”, on residential areas in Aleppo, the official, who spoke anonymously due to security concerns, told Anadolu Agency.

“Civil defense teams have managed to rescue many injured people from under the rubble,” he said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-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.