Syrian regime destroys another hospital in opposition areas

Syrian activists say a hospital in the southern province of Daraa has been destroyed in an air raid, forcing doctors and nurses to close the desperately needed medical facility.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network said a suspected regime air raid targeted the hospital in Jasem, an opposition town some 35 miles (57 kilometers) south of Damascus.

The group said six people were killed in the attack on opposition-held areas of Daraa province.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says the hospital strike killed a pharmacist and put the facility out of service.

Hospitals are regularly targeted by regime and Russian war planes, drawing condemnation from the UN and the international community but little else.

The New York-based Physicians for Human Rights said over 90 percent of attacks on medical facilities in Syria were carried out by pro-government forces.

A maternity hospital supported by Save the Children was bombed on Friday in an air raid in Idlib province of northwest Syria, the UK-based group said.

"Deliberate attacks on hospitals and medical facilities are serious violations of the laws of war and can never be justified," said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

"Hospitals, which have special protection under international humanitarian law, should be safe places for mothers, new-born infants and medical workers – even in the midst of a brutal prolonged conflict."

Last week, air raids struck four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank over a 24-hour period in the regime-besieged eastern parts of Aleppo city.