Assad regime drops vacuum bombs on Syrian city

By Halit Suleyman

IDLIB, Syria

A regime aircraft conducted a vacuum bomb attack late Monday against the opposition-held district of Sevre in the northwestern province of Idlib, local civil defense sources told Anadolu Agency.

Five victims were killed and 12 others, including a civil defense staff, were wounded in the attack, according to a medical source who spoke to Anadolu Agency.

A building was demolished after the attack and civil defense personnel are trying to reach victims trapped in the wreckage, the source said, adding that the wounded have been taken to local hospitals.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad 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 victims 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, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.

*Emin Avundukluoglu contributed to this story from Ankara.