Airstrikes destroyed a hospital in northern Syria on Monday, leaving seven people dead and at least eight missing, according to Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity that supports the facility, one of four hospitals that were struck by warplanes in a single day.
The hospital, in the town of Maarat al-Noaman, was hit by four missiles in two sets of attacks within a few minutes of each other, the charity said, citing reports by hospital staff members. Both Russian and Syrian warplanes operate over the area, in the insurgent-held Idlib Province. Seven people were killed, including five patients, a staff member and a guard. Eight more staff members are missing in the rubble, the charity said, and an unknown number of patients are also missing.
The charity added that about 15 other buildings had been struck in residential areas nearby.
It was the second time in a week that a hospital working with the charity was hit. The charity said an affiliated hospital was bombed in Dara’a Province in southern Syria on Feb. 9.
Photo
Bodies outside a makeshift hospital after reported airstrikes on Monday in the Syrian city of Azaz, near the border with Turkey. Credit Mujahed Abul Joud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,” Massimiliano Rebaudengo, the Doctors Without Borders head of mission, said of Monday’s strike on its affiliate. Deliberate attacks on medical facilities are forbidden under international law.
The hospital had 30 beds, 54 staff members, two operating rooms, clinics and an emergency room, and its destruction leaves 40,000 people without medical care, the charity said.
Antigovernment activists and residents said that warplanes had also attacked three other hospitals on Monday. Three people were killed and six wounded in one, the National Hospital, which is also in Maarat al-Noaman. And in Azaz, a major prize in the fierce battles unfolding in Aleppo Province, two hospitals were hit, at least one of them by what residents and the Turkish government said was a ballistic missile. A school housing displaced people was also damaged, residents said.
Azaz is one of the most complex theaters of the war in Syria, with combatants from many sides of the war clashing, sometimes with putative allies. Turkey has fired artillery into Syria, saying it is aiming at Kurdish-led forces that have taken territory from Turkish-backed fighters.
Russian officials have said their country’s airstrikes do not target civilians and have not killed any, though the United States and allied insurgent groups say that Moscow has bombed indiscriminately.
Syrian antigovernment monitoring groups say that Russian strikes have been the largest single cause of deaths in the war this year, and that they have killed hundreds of civilians, hitting schools, medical facilities and residential areas.
The strike came amid days of escalation along the Syria-Turkey border, despite the United States and Russia having agreed on Thursday in Munich to work for a cease-fire, said to be starting by the end of this week.
Doctors Without Borders has found its hospitals increasingly coming under fire in conflict zones. American airstrikes killed 42 people at an affiliated hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last year. The charity’s hospitals have also been hit in a Saudi air campaign in Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/w...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
The hospital, in the town of Maarat al-Noaman, was hit by four missiles in two sets of attacks within a few minutes of each other, the charity said, citing reports by hospital staff members. Both Russian and Syrian warplanes operate over the area, in the insurgent-held Idlib Province. Seven people were killed, including five patients, a staff member and a guard. Eight more staff members are missing in the rubble, the charity said, and an unknown number of patients are also missing.
The charity added that about 15 other buildings had been struck in residential areas nearby.
It was the second time in a week that a hospital working with the charity was hit. The charity said an affiliated hospital was bombed in Dara’a Province in southern Syria on Feb. 9.
Photo
Bodies outside a makeshift hospital after reported airstrikes on Monday in the Syrian city of Azaz, near the border with Turkey. Credit Mujahed Abul Joud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,” Massimiliano Rebaudengo, the Doctors Without Borders head of mission, said of Monday’s strike on its affiliate. Deliberate attacks on medical facilities are forbidden under international law.
The hospital had 30 beds, 54 staff members, two operating rooms, clinics and an emergency room, and its destruction leaves 40,000 people without medical care, the charity said.
Antigovernment activists and residents said that warplanes had also attacked three other hospitals on Monday. Three people were killed and six wounded in one, the National Hospital, which is also in Maarat al-Noaman. And in Azaz, a major prize in the fierce battles unfolding in Aleppo Province, two hospitals were hit, at least one of them by what residents and the Turkish government said was a ballistic missile. A school housing displaced people was also damaged, residents said.
Azaz is one of the most complex theaters of the war in Syria, with combatants from many sides of the war clashing, sometimes with putative allies. Turkey has fired artillery into Syria, saying it is aiming at Kurdish-led forces that have taken territory from Turkish-backed fighters.
Russian officials have said their country’s airstrikes do not target civilians and have not killed any, though the United States and allied insurgent groups say that Moscow has bombed indiscriminately.
Syrian antigovernment monitoring groups say that Russian strikes have been the largest single cause of deaths in the war this year, and that they have killed hundreds of civilians, hitting schools, medical facilities and residential areas.
The strike came amid days of escalation along the Syria-Turkey border, despite the United States and Russia having agreed on Thursday in Munich to work for a cease-fire, said to be starting by the end of this week.
Doctors Without Borders has found its hospitals increasingly coming under fire in conflict zones. American airstrikes killed 42 people at an affiliated hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last year. The charity’s hospitals have also been hit in a Saudi air campaign in Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/w...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
