16 February 2016•Update: 18 February 2016
By Fatih Erel
GENEVA
The United Nations in Geneva has condemned Monday's deadly air strikes on hospitals and schools in northern Syria.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news conference on Tuesday: "If it was deliberate, intentional targeting of those facilities, it could amount to a war crime."
"Clearly Syrian and Russian planes are very active in this area; they should know who is responsible, that is all l can say at this moment," Colville said in a press conference Tuesday.
The scale of attacks on schools and hospitals in Syria suggest that it is deliberate “war tactic”, Colville added.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned recent missile strikes in northern Syria. Five medical units and two schools were hit in Monday’s strikes which the UN says claimed around 50 civilian lives and injured dozens of people, including children.
Colville described the number of killed and injured as “ridiculous and shocking and absolutely inexcusable”.
News of the strikes comes amid UN efforts to facilitate a cease-fire in the war-torn country. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Monday to discuss a cessation of hostilities, humanitarian access to all besieged areas and a resumption of peace talks, UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
De Mistura will meet Moualem in Damascus again later Tuesday, Fawzi said, adding that he had no further information on whether de Mistura will meet Syrian opposition groups.
Turkey:Russian attacks on civilians 'obvious war crime'
