By Mohamed Misto

HOMS, Syria

Sixteen civilians were killed and scores injured Friday in Russian airstrikes on opposition-controlled al-Ghantu town in Homs province, local sources told Anadolu Agency.

The sources said that two Russian warplanes struck a number of towns in Homs province’s northern countryside, including al-Ghantu, where two missiles targeted residential areas crammed with internally displaced civilians.

Meanwhile, a local religious authority in Homs announced the cancelation of Friday prayer in the northern countryside following the Russian airstrikes.

This is the third time that Friday prayer is cancelled in Hom’s countryside since the Russian intervention in September 2015.

A report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research has said that 470,000 Syrians were killed and 1,900,000 injured in the country's civil war.

This is far above the UN’s last death toll figure of 250,000, which stopped collecting statistics about the casualties of Syrian conflict 18 months ago.