UN urges end to hospital attacks in Syria

UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations on Tuesday called for an end to airstrikes against hospitals in Syria.

"The United Nations is deeply disturbed by the ongoing destruction of civilian infrastructure, particularly medical facilities, across the country," according to a statement by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The UN has in recent days received reports of five hospitals hit by airstrikes, including three in Aleppo and one each in Daraa and Idlib, Dujarric said.

He said additional attacks reported July 31 and Aug. 1 damaged Apeppo's electricity and water distribution systems, leaving thousands without access to either.

"The UN continues to call on all parties to the conflict to end the destruction of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure that is essential for the civilian population, and to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and the international human rights law," Dujarric said.

At least 28 people have been killed in airstrikes carried out by Russia and the Syrian regime inside the war-torn country within the last fortnight, according to local sources speaking to Anadolu Agency.

The latest attack by regime forces that struck Daraa, where warplanes bombed a hospital in the opposition-held town of Jasim, killed seven people.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million victims have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.