Russian airstrikes kill 15 in northern Syria

IDLIB, Syria

At least 15 people were killed and 23 others wounded in airstrikes carried out Russia in the opposition-controlled Idlib province on Wednesday.

Lays al-Faris, a civil defense officials in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency that the Russian warplanes hit an area in al-Qura neighborhood of Idlib in the northwestern part of the country.

Faris said 11 workplaces and three vehicles were destroyed and eight buildings damaged in the attacks.

Russia began its military intervention in Syria in September 2015, reportedly after a formal request by the embattled Bashar al-Assad regime for help against armed opposition groups.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which had erupted as part of that year’s "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity and disproportionate force.

Since then, more than a quarter 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 until recently based in Damascus, has put the total death toll from the ongoing conflict at more than 470,000.