ALEPPO, Syria
At least 15 civilians were killed and another 20 injured on Thursday when a Syrian warplane dropped a fuel-air weapon, also known as a “vacuum bomb,” on Syria’s Kerm ul-Beyk region, according to local civil defense sources.
The explosive device fell on a public square near the Ibad ar-Rahman Mosque during taraweeh prayer, the sources told Anadolu Agency, adding that most of the casualties were women and children.
The same sources said that at least 10 people remained trapped under debris caused by the bombing.
Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year, was triggered by a violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters by the government of President Bashar al-Assad in early 2011.
Half of the country’s population has since been displaced by the violence, with nearly four million Syrians currently seeking refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
