Aleppo bombing puts another hospital out

The Washington Post

ALEPPO, Syria — The largest hospital in eastern Aleppo was bombed Saturday for the second time in a week, killing and wounding more than a dozen patients as they recovered from earlier attacks.

Doctors at the facility, known as M10 for security reasons, said the assault involved cluster munitions, barrel bombs and incendiary weapons, prompting mass panic and appeals for help.

“The hospital is being destroyed. SOS, everyone,” said Mohammad Abu Rajab, the hospital’s administrator and radiologist, in an audio message sent to journalists Saturday morning.

Two barrel bombs hit the hospital, said Adham Sahloul, an official with the Syrian American Medical Society, a charity group that runs the hospital.

As a coalition of mostly Shiite militias gathers on the outskirts of the city, hospitals in rebel-held Aleppo have endured a barrage of attacks by allied Syrian and Russian warplanes.

The attacks are apparently aimed at forcing the surrender of an area that has held out through four years of war — a full takeover of Aleppo would represent the largest military victory for Syrian President Bashar Assad since the crisis began in 2011.

“When you destroy a hospital or kill a doctor, that’s a death sentence to the people around them,” said Adham Sahloul, a spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society. Only 35 doctors remain in the area, according to the World Health Organization, and attacks on medical facilities have crippled their ability to cope in the face of a blitz.

Opposition activist Ahmad Alkhatib posted photographs on his Twitter account showing the damage including beds covered with dust, a hole in its roof and debris covering the street outside.

Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and rebels in the east since fighting erupted for control of the city in mid2012.