Air strikes on Syria hospital kill at least 7: MSF

Air strikes on Monday destroyed a hospital in northwestern Syria supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), leaving at least seven people dead and eight missing, the group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the raids were believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes.

It said nine people, including a child, had been killed.

“A building that housed a hospital supported by MSF was destroyed on Monday by aircraft, presumably Russian,” near Maaret al-Numan in the northern province of Idlib, the Observatory said.

The raids also left dozens wounded, added the monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

MSF said in a statement that a hospital supported by the aid group in Idlib province was “destroyed in air strikes” on Monday.

It did not say who was believed to be behind the raids.

Four rockets hit the 30-bed facility, which had 54 staff, two operating theatres, an outpatients’ department and an emergency room, the group said.

“This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,” said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, the head of MSF’s Syria mission.

“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict,” Rebaudengo said.

The organisation supports around 150 hospitals in Syria.

Russian warplanes have conducted air strikes in Syria since September 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Observatory says it determines whether strikes were carried out by Syrian, Russian or US-led coalition aircraft based on the location of the raids, flight patterns and the types of planes involved.