Aleppo: Air strikes
launched by the Syrian government have killed several civilians and injured
dozens in the northern city of Aleppo as the ceasefire between the government
and opposition groups crumbles.
At least 25 people were killed across Aleppo and several dozen
injured in the attacks. The strikes targeted four different, predominantly
civilian areas in the city.
At least 30
civilians were injured in the Bustan al-Qasr area alone. According to the
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, government air strikes also
targeted towns across Syria’s Idlib province, killing at least three civilians.
Aleppo’s streets mostly emptied following the attacks, with people rushing home
to avoid being in open spaces.
Elsewhere in
Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS)
group claimed to have downed a plane of the government forces in the
countryside of Damascus and captured its pilot. However, citing a Syrian
military source, Russian news agency Interfax said the plane, a Mig-23, belonged
to the Syrian Air Force and crashed because of a technical fault.
The Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising
against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but has since morphed
into a full-on civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 260,000
people, according to the UN statistics.
The already shaky ceasefire between the government and some
rebels was severely strained on Tuesday when at least 44 people were killed in
air strikes on two markets in the northwest.
The Geneva talks are aimed at ending the five-year war by
fashioning a political transition, writing a new constitution, and holding
fresh elections by September 2017.
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