At least 49 killed in Russian, Syrian strikes in Aleppo

At least 49 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded late Sunday when Russian and regime warplanes struck opposition-held areas of Syria's northwestern city of Aleppo, according to a local civil defense official.

Najib al-Ansari, a pro-opposition civil defense official in the city, said jets targeted the residential areas with various types of bombs.

He said the 113 who were injured were taken to nearby field hospitals and that a number of buildings were also destroyed in the attacks.

The official also stressed the humanitarian crisis in opposition-held areas of Aleppo, which he said had been under continuous bombardment of the regime and Russia.

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 are believed to have been killed -- and more than 10 million displaced -- across the war-torn country, according to UN figures.

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

One year ago, the Russian military began extensive air operations in Syria with the stated aim of fighting terrorist groups based in the country and supporting the embattled Assad regime.