Air strikes on medical facilities, schools leave dozens dead in Syria, U.N. says
LEBANON | BEIRUT — Almost 50 people, including many children, died Monday in missile attacks on at least five hospitals and two schools in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York on Monday.
The medical charity Doctors without Borders, or MSF, reported earlier that seven people were killed and eight others were presumed dead in a strike on a hospital it supported in Maarat al-Nuaman in Idlib.
The group did not say who was responsible for the air strike. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said it appeared to have been carried out by Russian forces.
Another apparent Russian air strike hit a second hospital in the town, killing two nurses, the Observatory said.
The Syrian ambassador to Russia said the attack had been carried out by the United States.
‘Deliberate attack’
MSF said its hospital was hit by four missiles in two attacks within a few minutes of each other. It denounced the incident as a “deliberate attack” on health structures.
The United States condemned the air strikes, saying they were “without cause and without sufficient regard for international obligations to safeguard innocent lives.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the attacks were carried out by “the Assad regime and its supporters.”
Rebel-held areas in northern Syria have seen their health infrastructure badly damaged. According to medics, at least 10 hospitals in Aleppo province are no longer functional as a result of heavy damage from air strikes.
The air strikes on medical facilities in rebel-held territory are all thought to have been carried out by Russian and Syrian forces.
No-fly zone
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the introduction of a no-fly zone in Syria.
“In the current situation it would be helpful if there were a field to which none of the warring factions can launch attacks by air — a kind of no-fly zone,” Merkel told the daily Stuttgarter Zeitung.
“Everything diplomatically must be tried to end this war,” Merkel said. “But you cannot really expect that it will be over by tomorrow.”
Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, started its strikes in Syria on Sept. 30 and has helped Syrian government forces seize key territory from rebels.