UPDATE - Regime, Russian warplanes kill 39 in Syria's Idlib

*UPDATES DEATH TOLL FROM ATTACKS

By Halit Suleyman

IDLIB, Syria (AA) - At least 39 people were killed and dozens injured in airstrikes launched by regime and Russian warplanes in Syria's western province of Idlib on Sunday.

A Syrian regime warplane struck a marketplace in the opposition-held province, local civil defense official Leys al-Faris told Anadolu Agency.

“At least 36 people were killed and 50 others injured in the attack,” he said.

Al-Faris described the attack as a “massacre” committed by the Bashar al-Assad regime during the fasting month of Ramadan, which began in Syria last week.

Meanwhile, three people were killed in a Russian airstrike on a residential area in the city of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib.

“Rescuers are looking for survivors following the attack,” al-Faris said.

Since April 21, Syrian regime forces and Russian warplanes have intensified attacks on opposition-held areas in Syria, killings scores of civilians.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests 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.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondent Sibel Ugurlu contributed this report from Ankara.