Syrian regime helicopters attack Aleppo, killing 11

By Halit Suleyman

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – Eleven people were killed and dozens others injured on Thursday when Syrian regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on opposition-held parts of Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo, local medical sources said.

According to sources from local field hospitals who spoke anonymously due to fears for their safety, at least nine civilians were killed in Aleppo’s Al-Sokkari district while two others were killed in the Al-Ansari district.

Meanwhile, Najib al-Ansari, a civil defense official based in Aleppo, told Anadolu Agency that Russian and regime warplanes had carried out 150 separate airstrikes in Aleppo late Wednesday.

"Russian aircraft attacked [Aleppo’s] Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood with phosphorus bombs, leaving several residential buildings in flames," al-Ansari said.

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

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, a Beirut-based NGO, has put the death toll from the six-year-old conflict at more than 470,000.