Syrian regime attack kills 5 civilians in NW Syria

By Halit Süleyman

ALEPPO, Syria

Five people were killed and several others injured in an attack by Assad regime warplane in opposition-held parts of Syria's northwestern Aleppo province on Saturday.

According to Abu Leys, a local civil defense official, a regime warplane struck a residential area in Aleppo’s town of Salahaddin.

"Two families are still under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Rescue teams continue to search for survivors," he added.

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.

*Anadolu Agency’s Sibel Ugurlu contributed to this report from Ankara.