Syrian regime jets 'kill 20, injure 24' in Idlib raids

By Halit Suleyman

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – Syrian fighter jets killed 20 people and injured 24 more with vacuum bombs dropped in the northwestern city of Idlib and surrounding districts late on Thursday.

A civil defense official in Idlib, Leys el-Faris, told Anadolu Agency that Syrian jets killed seven people in the city, eight in Carcanaz town and five civilians in the Han Seyhun district.

Faris said rescuers had pulled a number of children’s bodies from the wreckage in Carcanaz.

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.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn 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.