Syrian regime aircraft bomb Aleppo, kill at least four

By Khaled Suleiman

ALEPPO, Syria

At least four people were killed and several others injured on Wednesday when Assad regime helicopters struck targets in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo, according to local sources.

"A military helicopter dropped several barrel bombs on Aleppo’s Al-Sukkari neighborhood, killing four people and injuring 11 others," the sources added.

One civil defense official based in Aleppo told Anadolu Agency that a building in the neighborhood had been "completely destroyed" while a civil defense team was still working to rescue the injured.

Barrel bombs are improvised explosive devices packed with shrapnel and explosive material. Usually dropped from Syrian army helicopters, the low-cost munitions are believed to have killed thousands of people since the conflict began.

"Syrian regime warplanes also dropped vacuum bombs on Aleppo's Mashhad, Al-Rashideen, and Al-Maadi districts," the official, who spoke anonymously due to security concerns, asserted.

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 the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, a Beirut-based NGO, has put the death toll from the six-year-old conflict at more than 470,000.