Russian warplanes hit two hospitals in NW Syria, killing 14

By Mohamed Misto

IDLIB, Syria

At least 14 people were killed on Monday when Russian warplanes struck two hospitals in Syria’s northwestern city of Idlib, according to a local source.

One of the airstrikes, which struck a hospital funded by Geneva-based medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF), killed 11 people and injured 25, a local civil defense source told Anadolu Agency.

According to the same source, the four-story hospital was completely destroyed by the airstrike.

MSF, for its part, decried the attack.

"We condemn this attack which appears to have been deliberately conducted against a health facility," MSF head of mission in Syria Massimiliano Rebaudengo said in a Monday statement.

"The destruction of this hospital deprived the 40,000 people living in this open conflict area of access to care," he added.

According to MSF, the hospital was hit four times in two series of attacks, each conducted within minutes of each other.

MSF officials say at least eight staff members remain missing since the attack on the 30-bed hospital, which had contained two operating rooms, an outpatient clinic and an emergency room.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the attack against the MSF hospital in Idlib was unacceptable.

Speaking in a press conference after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday, Mogherini said: "Protecting civilians - especially health facilities - and humanitarian aid and the NGOs' activities should be ensured. In this context, the attack against the MSF hospital is unacceptable. We will maintain pressure on all parties to make them respect basic human rights and focus on the protection of civilians."

“Russian and Syrian forces know full well that deliberate attacks on medical facilities are war crimes. All parties to the conflict must cease such horrific attacks, stop destroying medical facilities and allow medical workers to carry out their life-saving work without fear of being killed or injured in the line of duty,” said Said Boumedouha deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty cites a report by NGO Physicians for Human Rights, which has, before the latest assaults on Monday, recorded 336 attacks on medical facilities and 697 personnel killed since the conflict started in 2011. Of the 697, 657 have been killed by Syrian forces, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

* Additional reporting from Geneva by Fatih Erel and Busra Akin Dincer from London