Strikes in north-west Syria kill 12 and damage field clinic
Second attack hit clinic where injured had been taken
BEIRUT // Air strikes on a rebelheld village in north-west Syria yesterday killed 12 people and put a field clinic out of service.
The, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring service said a first round of raids hit the village of Duwayleh in Idlib province, killing five civilians and at least two rebel fighters. A second air raid hit a clinic in nearby Kafr Takharim, as the wounded from Duwayleh were being taken there.
A spokesman at the hospital said 14 people, including patients, were killed when the air raid hit the courtyard. The clinic was so badly damaged that it was put out of action.
It was the second medical facility in rebel- held Idlib province to be targeted in four days, after a warplane on Saturday severely damaged a makeshift hospital set up in a cave near the village of Abdeen, wounding five medical staff. The World Health Organisation has called Syria the most dangerous place in the world for health workers.
Idlib province has been under the control of rebel and extremist groups since spring 2015 and is regularly bombarded by Syrian and Russian warplanes.
On April 4, 87 people, including children, died in a poisonous gas on Khan Sheikhoun, farther south in Idlib province.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ( OPCW) said last week that incontrovertible test results showed sarin gas or a similar substance had been used. The US government has put 271 Syrian chemists and other officials on its financial blacklist because of their presumed role in that attack. The sanctions will freeze all assets in the United States belonging to the 271 on the blacklist, and block any American person or business from dealing with them.