By Halit Suleyman and Ayse Aktas

ALEPPO, Syria

Nine civilians were killed by Russian airstrikes on Friday in Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo, a pro-opposition civil defense official said.

Some 30 people were injured when Russian warplanes struck residential areas in the opposition-held Kfar Dael village, Beibars Meshal, a civil defense official in Aleppo, told Anadolu Agency.

He said three children were among those killed in the attack.

Syria has been wrecked 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 400,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.