Russian airstrike kills 15 in Syria’s Aleppo

By Khaled Suleiman

ALEPPO, Syria

At least 15 people were killed in a Russian cluster bomb attack late Saturday in northern Syria’s Aleppo province.

Russian warplanes struck a rural town in Aleppo’s Atarib district with cluster bombs, a local civil defense official told Anadolu Agency.

“At least 15 people were killed and many others injured,” he added anonymously due to security concerns.

The official said the attack has left a vast trail of destruction and rescuers were struggling to search for survivors under the debris of destroyed buildings.

In September of last year, Russia launched a massive air campaign against opponents of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Moscow says its airstrikes are directed against the Daesh terrorist group, while Washington and the Syrian opposition say the Russian raids target Assad’s opponents.

Since March 2011, the Syrian opposition has demanded an end to more than 44 years of Assad family rule and the establishment of a democratic state.

The Syrian regime responded to the peaceful protests with military force, pushing the country into a vicious downward spiral of violence, bloody battles and a civil war that is still ongoing between the regime and opposition forces.

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 puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.