People gather around the rubble of a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders near Maaret al-Numan, in Syria’s northern province of Idlib after the building was hit by suspected Russian air strikes. (photo: Ghaith Omran/AFP/Getty Images)
Airstrike
Destroys MSF-Supported Hospital in Northern Syria
By Bassem Mroue, Associated
Press
15 February 16
Airstrikes
hit two hospitals and a school in northern Syria, killing and wounding dozens
of people on Monday, according to opposition activists, who said the strikes
were carried out by Russian warplanes supporting a major advance by government
troops.
An
airstrike in the province of Idlib destroyed a makeshift clinic supported by the
international aid group Doctors Without Borders, while in the neighboring
Aleppo province, a missile struck a children's hospital in the town of Azaz,
killing at least five people and wounding dozens. A third air raid hit a school
in a nearby village, killing seven and wounding others.
Doctors
Without Borders — also known by its French acronym MSF — said in a statement
that the hospital in the town of Maaret al-Numan was hit four times in at least
two attacks that were minutes apart. It said at least seven people were killed
and at least eight others were "missing, presumed dead."
"This
appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this
attack in the strongest possible terms," said Massimiliano Rebaudengo,
MSF's mission chief. "The destruction of the hospital leaves the local
population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an
active zone of conflict."
The
aid group said the hospital had 30 beds, 54 staff members, two operating
theatres, an outpatients department and an emergency room. MSF has been
supporting the hospital since September and covered all its needs, including
providing medical supplies and running costs, it said.
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian warplanes targeted
the makeshift hospital, destroying it and killing nine people. The opposition
group, which tracks both sides of the conflict through sources on the ground,
said dozens were wounded in the attack.
Syrian
troops have been advancing in the north under the cover of Russian airstrikes
in recent weeks. The offensive has been focused on Aleppo province, where
troops are trying to cut rebel supply lines to Turkey and surround rebel-held
parts of Aleppo city, once Syria's largest.
On
Monday, Syrian state TV reported that pro-government gunmen have entered
western parts of the northern town of Tel Rifaat, where they were fighting
"fierce battles' against insurgents. Tel Rifaat is a major stronghold of
militants fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.
Opposition
activist Yahya al-Sobeih, speaking by phone from Maaret al-Numan, said
"the entire building has collapsed on the ground. He said five people were
killed near the MSF clinic and "all members of the medical team inside are
believed to be dead."
Paramedics
and volunteers were working on removing the rubble, he added. The four-story
building was once a cement company, but had served as a makeshift clinic during
the war, al-Sobeih said.
The
missile attack in Azaz, near the Turkish border, killed five people at the
hospital, including three children and a pregnant woman, and wounded more than
30, the Observatory said. Activist Bahaa al-Halaby, who is based in the
northern city of Aleppo, said the hospital was struck by a missile, and that 10
people were killed.
Abdulrahman
Al-Hassan, chief liaison officer at the Syrian Civil Defense, a group of first
responders known as the "White Helmets," said the women's hospital in
Azaz was hit by two surface-to-surface missiles. He added that some 10 people
were killed and many were wounded.
"We
think it is Russia because the photos of the missiles have Russian language
(and) because we haven't seen this kind (of missiles) before the Russian
intervention," he said.
Russia
has been a key ally of Assad throughout the five-year uprising and civil war,
and began launching airstrikes to support his forces on Sept. 30.
In
Turkey, the private Dogan news agency reported that more than 30 of those
wounded in Russian airstrikes in Azaz, primarily children, were transferred to
a hospital in southern Turkey. It showed footage of ambulances arriving at the
Kilis State hospital, medics unloading children on stretchers and a girl
wrapped in a blanket.
"They
hit the school, they hit the school," wailed a Syrian woman who was
unloaded from an ambulance onto a wheelchair.
The
Observatory and al-Halaby said an air raid struck a school in the village of
Kaljibrin, near Azaz. Al-Halaby said the raid killed seven people and wounded
others. The Observatory said five were killed.
Meanwhile
in Brussels, European Union officials on Monday called on Turkey to halt its
military action in Syria after Turkish forces shelled positions held by a
U.S.-backed Kurdish militia over the weekend.
The
EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that "only a few days
ago, all of us including Turkey, sitting around the table, decided steps to
de-escalate and have a cessation of hostilities."
She
said more fighting "is obviously not what we expect."
Dutch
Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country holds the EU's rotating
presidency, said "we have the plan for a cessation of hostilities and I
think everybody has to abide by that."
Syria's
main Kurdish faction, the People's Protection Units or YPG, has been highly
effective in combating the Islamic State group, but Turkey views it as a threat
because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a
decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday said the cross-border shelling has
succeeded in halting a Kurdish advance on Azaz and vowed the "harshest
reaction" if the YPG march on the town again.
Kurdish-led
forces had recently gained ground along the border with Turkey at the expense
of Syrian rebels, who have been struggling to hold ground amid the massive
Russian-backed government offensive.
Also
Monday, Syria's pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV said one of its correspondents
was wounded in a missile attack in the coastal province of Latakia. It said
journalist Mazem Mohammed was in stable conditions.
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