Syria: Russian raids kill 28 in Aleppo

By Khalid Suleiman

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – At least 28 civilians were killed and scores injured in Russian airstrikes in northern Syria’s Aleppo province on Wednesday.

Russian warplanes carried out three raids on residential areas in the opposition-held al-Sokkary district in Aleppo, Najib al-Ansari, a local civil defense official, told Anadolu Agency.

“The attack has left 57 civilians injured, including women and children,” he said.

According to al-Ansari, civil defense teams are struggling to extract the bodies of victims from under the debris of destroyed homes.

On Tuesday, Syrian regime aircraft reportedly struck al-Sokkary district with chlorine gas bombs.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad 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 victims 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, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.