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Airstrike destroys MSF-supported clinic in northern Syria Airstrikes destroy hospitals in northern Syria
(35 minutes later)
A makeshift clinic supported by Médecins Sans Frontières has been destroyed by an airstrike in northern Syria. Airstrikes have hit hospitals in two locations in northern Syria – the latest in an escalating series of attacks on medical facilities and workers in the five-year civil war.
The charity said at least eight staff members are missing after the attack in the town of Maaret al-Numan, in Idlib province, about 170 miles north of Damascus. Médecins Sans Frontières said eight staff members were missing after a facility it supports in Maaret al-Numan, Idlib province, was hit four times in two separate raids. MSF did not blame any side for the bombing, but there has been an unrelenting aerial bombardment by Russian warplanes and Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Idlib.
In a separate incident, a Turkish security official told Reuters that Russian airstrikes had targeted the rebel-held town of Azaz near the border. Opposition activists said a missile struck a children’s hospital, killing 10 and wounding more than 30. Ankara shelled Kurdish positions near Azaz over the weekend.
Moscow’s intense airstrike campaign has helped Assad score his most significant advances since the beginning of the war, threatening to upend a “cessation of hostilities” deal agreed by major powers in Munich last week.
Related: The bombardment of a hospital is a too-frequent 'accident'. It's also a war crime | Bernard KouchnerRelated: The bombardment of a hospital is a too-frequent 'accident'. It's also a war crime | Bernard Kouchner
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the makeshift hospital was hit by a suspected Russian strike, and that nine people died. The raids on Monday also left dozens wounded, said SOHR, which relies on a network of sources on the ground. Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF’s head of mission in Syria, said: “This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of about 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict.”
Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF’s head of mission in Syria, said: “This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, issued a blanket denial over the weekend that his country was targeting civilians and civilian facilities in Syria, but several attacks on health centres have been documented since Russia’s intervention. In the first month of the campaign launched last October, NGO Physicians for Human Rights documented seven Russian attacks on medical facilities in Syria.
“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of about 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict.” The 30-bed hospital had 54 staff, two operating theatres, an outpatients department and an emergency room, MSF said. On Sunday, Riad Hijab, the head of the opposition’s high negotiations committee and a former Syrian prime minister, reiterated the opposition’s demand that airstrikes are halted and sieges around the country lifted, adding that Assad must leave for peace in Syria to take hold.
In a separate incident seven Russian missiles struck a hospital in the northern town of Azaz, a Turkish security official said. “Every day, hundreds of Syrians die from airstrikes and artillery bombardment, poison gas, cluster bombs, torture, starvation, cold and drowning,” said Hijab, speaking in Munich. “The Syrian people continue to live in terror and in utter despair after the international community failed to prevent even the gravest violations committed against them.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive in northern Syria under the cover of Russian airstrikes. “The best approach to put an end to Daesh [Isis] and other extremist groups must start with the removal of the Assad regime.”
Related: Who backs whom in the Syrian conflict
Russia resumed airstrikes on Monday in northern Latakia province near the Turkish border, bombing rebel positions to pave the way for a regime advance. The US president, Barack Obama, had urged Russia on Sunday to halt airstrikes against mainstream rebels.
Turkey, which strongly backs anti-Assad rebels, is fighting an insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) on its own territory, and has viewed with growing alarm what it sees as Kurdish expansionism in Syria. Ankara says the YPG is simply the Syrian affiliate of the PKK.
Turkey’s defence minister denied that Turkey had sent troops into northern Syria and said it had no intention of doing so, as speculation grows of a possible ground intervention by opponents of the Assad regime.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said last week that they were ready to send small numbers of ground forces into the embattled country as part of the US-led coalition against Isis.