Syria: Regime airstrikes kill 24 in Aleppo

By Khalid Suleiman

ALEPPO, Syria

Syrian regime warplanes carried out airstrikes in the northern Aleppo province Saturday, killing 24 people and injuring scores.

Regime aircraft struck residential areas in the opposition-held neighborhoods of Marja, Mashhad and Sukker in Aleppo, local civil defense official Najib Ansari told Anadolu Agency.

“Fifteen people were killed and 43 others injured in the attacks,” he said.

Nine people were also killed and 30 others injured when regime warplanes bombed residential areas in Atarib, west of Aleppo, he said.

According to Ansari, the regime airstrikes have left a vast trail of destruction in the area.

“An 11-day baby was rescued from under the rubble by civil defense teams in Marja, but his mother was unfortunately killed in the attack,” he said.

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-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.