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U.N. Says 50 Were Killed in Strikes on Four Syria Hospitals Syrian Hospitals in Crossfire as Battlefield Grows More Chaotic
(about 2 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Airstrikes hit four hospitals in rebel-held northern Syria on Monday, including child and maternity facilities, international aid officials and witnesses reported. The United Nations said at least 50 people were killed, including children. BEIRUT, Lebanon — The prospect of a wider war loomed over an increasingly chaotic battlefield in northern Syria on Monday, as fast-moving clashes pitted United States allies against one another and tensions continued to grow between two major powers, Russia and Turkey.
It was unclear who was responsible for the attacks, which came days before international powers have called for a “cessation of hostilities” in the five-year Syria war. Russian and Syrian aircraft operate in the areas where the hospitals were struck. Taking advantage of fierce Russian airstrikes, Kurdish-led forces advanced headlong into shrinking rebel territory in the northern part of Aleppo Province, infuriating the insurgents and their principal backer, Turkey, which threatened “a severe response” if the Kurds moved farther.
Two of the four hospitals were supported by Unicef. Anthony Lake, Unicef’s executive director, said in a statement, “Apart from compelling considerations of diplomacy and obligations under international humanitarian law, let us remember that these victims are children.” The situation has pitted a dizzying array of warring parties against one another, vividly illustrating the notion that the enemy of my enemy is, as often as not, my enemy, too. Tensions have never been higher between Kurds and Syrian Arab rebels, who now accuse the Kurds of opportunistically attacking them in league with Russia and the Syrian government to advance their goal of seizing territory along the border with Turkey.
Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations in New York, told reporters at midday that the death toll was 50. It remains unclear how many of the casualties were children. Those clashes are fueling a risky escalation of tensions, especially between Turkey and Russia. And they are pitting two American-backed groups against each other, since both the Kurds and many rebel groups in Aleppo receive American support.
Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity, said the airstrikes destroyed one of the hospitals it supports, killing at least seven, wounding eight and leaving an unknown number of patients buried in rubble. As always, caught in the middle are civilians, with four hospitals being bombed in a single day on Monday and Turkey and the Syrian insurgents accusing Russia of targeting them deliberately in an effort to drive them out of the area. Two of the hospitals were supported by Unicef, including a pediatric and maternity hospital, and at least 50 people were killed in all of the attacks, including children, said Farhan Haq, a United Nations spokesman.
The hospital, in the town of Maarat al-Noaman, in insurgent-held Idlib Province, 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. Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that has been tracking attacks on health care workers and infrastructure amid the Syrian conflict, says that 697 health care workers have been killed in 336 attacks on medical sites, the vast majority of them carried out by the Syrian government and its allies.
Two of the hospitals hit on Monday were in Azaz, a major prize in the fierce battles unfolding in Aleppo Province. One was struck by what residents and the Turkish government said was a ballistic missile. A school housing displaced people was also hit, residents said.
The attacks came as Kurdish militias and Arab allies advanced closer to Azaz, a critical border town, and overran Tal Rifaat, a town on the road to the border from the city of Aleppo.
Turkey, which views the Kurds as its worst enemy in the region and does not want to see more Kurdish-controlled areas along its border, shelled the advancing forces, led by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Front, for a third day in a row.
“We will not let Azaz fall,” Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told reporters on his plane en route to Ukraine, according to the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency. He threatened “a severe response” if Kurdish forces advanced on the town.
The advances were made by the Syrian Democratic Front, whose most powerful elements are Syrian Kurdish militias, the People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., but which also includes some Arab forces. The United States supports the S.D.F. in battles against the Islamic State farther east, but Turkey — a crucial American ally and NATO member — considers the Y.P.G. a terrorist group.
American admonitions to both the Turks and the Kurds to refrain from attacks appeared to have little immediate effect.
The Kurdish advances raised Turkish fears that they were aiming to unite the two Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria, now separated by a patch of Syrian rebel territory and a larger area controlled by Islamic State. The larger fear is of Kurdish separatism in southeast Turkey, which could be inflamed by the formation of a de facto Kurdish state in the chaos of northern Syria and Iraq. Mr. Davutoglu specifically declared that Turkey would not allow the enclaves to unite.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry declared that Turkey, by shelling the Kurds as they battled insurgents, was providing “direct support for international terrorism.” It also insisted that the American-led coalition against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was responsible for the hospital bombing in Maarat al-Noaman, though United States military officials said there were no coalition strikes in the area.
One of the hospitals that was struck, in the town of Maarat al-Noaman, was hit by four missiles in two sets of attacks within a few minutes of one another, according to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which supports the site.
Both Russian and Syrian warplanes operate over the area, in the insurgent-held Idlib Province. Residents said that at least seven people were killed, including five patients, a staff member and a guard. Eight more staff members were missing in the rubble, they said, and an unknown number of patients were also missing.
The charity added that about 15 other buildings had been struck in residential areas nearby.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. It was the second time in a week that a hospital working with Doctors Without Borders had been hit. The charity said an affiliated hospital was bombed on Feb. 9 in Dara’a Province in southern Syria.
“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 about Monday’s strike on its affiliate. Deliberate attacks on medical facilities are forbidden under international law.“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 about 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.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 warplanes 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. Three people were killed and six were injured elsewhere in Maarat al-Noaman, at the National Hospital, residents said.
A school housing displaced people was also damaged, residents said. 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.
Azaz is one of the most complex theaters of the war in Syria, with combatants from many sides 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. 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.
Russian officials have said their country’s airstrikes do not target civilians and have not killed any. Doctors Without Borders has found its hospitals increasingly 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 Arabian air campaign in Yemen.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry declared that Turkey, by shelling the Kurds as they battled insurgents, was providing “direct support for international terrorism.” It also insisted that the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State was responsible for the hospital bombing in Maarat al-Noaman, but United States military officials said there were no coalition strikes in the area. The United States and allied insurgent groups say that Russia has bombed indiscriminately. The latest strike came amid days of escalation along the Syria-Turkey border, despite — or, experts say, perhaps because of — the United States and Russia having agreed on Thursday in Munich to work toward a cease-fire, said to be starting by the end of this week.
Syrian antigovernment monitoring groups say that Russian strikes have been the single largest cause of deaths in the war this year, and that they have killed hundreds of civilians, hitting schools, medical facilities and residential areas. On Monday, though, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its warplanes would keep attacking rebel positions even after the cease-fire goes into effect, saying it considered the rebels to be terrorists.
The strikes 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.
Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that has been tracking attacks on health care workers and infrastructure amid the Syrian conflict, says it has documented 336 attacks on medical sites that have killed 697 staff members, the vast majority carried out by the Syrian government and its allies.