Russian airstrikes kill 15 in NW Syria: Local sources

By Halit Suleyman

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – Fifteen people were killed and another 34 injured Wednesday when Russian jets struck a residential part of the opposition-held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, local civil defense sources told Anadolu Agency.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal, said the attack had targeted a building associated with the Syrian Red Crescent organization.

The injured, the same sources said, had since been taken to nearby field hospitals.

The attack severely damaged a number of homes and vehicles in the area, they added.

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 that year’s "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 UN figures.

However, the Syrian Center for Policy Research, an NGO that was until recently based in Damascus, has put the death toll from the five-year conflict at more than 470,000.