A new low in Syria

Even by the bloody standards of the Syrian civil war, the story we report today about an attack on a hospital by Russian warplanes plumbs new depths of iniquity. The hidden establishment was targeted after hackers obtained its coordinates from the computer of British surgeon David Nott. He will be familiar to many as a doctor who has been to many war zones to help treat the wounded. He continues to assist when back in the UK by offering advice via Skype to local surgeons on the scene. It appears that this was the opportunity for cyber-intruders to establish the whereabouts of an underground medical facility he was in contact with and which Mr Nott can no longer help in case it endangers more lives.

The deliberate targeting of hospitals and medical workers has been one of the more obscene aspects of a barbaric conflict in which all sense of civilised behaviour has been lost. Wars have always been grim affairs, but those looking after the injured have usually been protected. In Syria they have been deliberately, cynically and unlawfully singled out to break morale and wear down resistance.

The Syrian regime claims hospitals have been used to shelter rebel fighters. But the surgeons that Mr Nott was helping were clearly treating the wounded. It is easy in the current atmosphere to blame the Kremlin for everything; but the evidence is strong that this hospital was obliterated by a Russian warplane. The hacking of Mr Nott’s computer is also likely to have been carried out by Russia, though it is possible Syrian cyber-warfare outfits were responsible. Among all the other crimes being laid at Mr Putin’s door, from poisoning ex-spies to interfering in Western politics, bombing hospitals is a new low.