BEIRUT, Lebanon Airstrikes hit
four hospitals in rebel-held northern Syria on Monday, including child and maternity facilities, international aid officials and witnesses reported. The United Nations said at least 50 people were killed, including children.
It was unclear who was responsible for the attacks, which came days before international powers have called for a cessation of hostilities in the five-year Syria war.
Russian and Syrian aircraft operate in the areas where the hospitals were struck.
Two of the four hospitals were supported by Unicef. Anthony Lake, Unicefs executive director, said in a statement, Apart from compelling considerations of diplomacy and obligations under international humanitarian law, let us remember that these victims are children.
Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations in New York, told reporters at midday that the death toll was 50. It remains unclear how many of the casualties were children.
Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity, said the airstrikes destroyed one of the hospitals it supports, killing at least seven, wounding eight and leaving an unknown number of patients buried in rubble.
The hospital, in the town of Maarat al-Noaman, in insurgent-held Idlib Province, was hit by four missiles in two sets of attacks within a few minutes of each other, the charity said, citing reports by hospital staff members.
The charity added that about 15 other buildings had been struck in residential areas nearby.
It was the second time in a week that a hospital working with the charity was hit. The charity said an affiliated hospital was bombed in Daraa Province in southern Syria on Feb. 9.
This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms, Massimiliano Rebaudengo, the Doctors Without Borders head of mission, said about Mondays strike on its affiliate. Deliberate attacks on medical facilities are forbidden under international law.
The hospital had 30 beds, 54 staff members, two operating rooms, clinics and an emergency room, and its destruction leaves 40,000 people without medical care, the charity said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/w...spital-airstrike-doctors-without-borders.html (video at the source)
