Syrian child loses twin sister, mother in Aleppo raid

ALEPPO, Syria (AA) – A Russian airstrike on northern Syria’s Aleppo city on Tuesday has killed the mother and twin sister of six-year old child Sabah Sheikh Qassem.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, pro-opposition defense official Mohammed Novlo said Russian jet fighters struck a 5-floor building -- where Qassem’s family was living -- in Aleppo’s al-Shear district.

“[Her] six-year old twin died at the hospital. The other girl is under treatment,” Novlo said.

“Unfortunately, the mother, 25, was killed in the attack,” he added.

Qassem’s father and another sister, a one-year old baby, were rescued by civil defense teams following the Russian raid.

The traumatized father was approached by Anadolu Agency for comment, but he was too sad to speak.

Novlo described recent Russian airstrikes on Aleppo as the “most destructive earthquake”.

Regime and Russian warplanes have intensified airstrikes on opposition-held neighborhoods in Aleppo in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, at least 22 civilians were killed and dozens injured when Russian warplanes struck Aleppo's Al-Mashhad and Al-Shear districts with vacuum bombs.

Since Sept. 19 when the Syrian regime ended a week-long cease-fire, almost 500 civilians were killed and hundreds injured in attacks on the war-battered city.

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.

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