Syria: Scores of MSF hospitals bombed in past year
At least 60 hospitals supported by Doctors Without Borders were targeted in Syria last year, killing at least 80 medical staff, according to the international medical aid charity.
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Scores of MSF hospitals have been targeted in Syria [Getty]
More than 60 health facilities in Syria supported by Doctors Without Borders were hit in attacks last year, with a dozen completely destroyed, the group said on Thursday.
The international charity, known by its French initials MSF, warned Syria's health infrastructure "has been decimated", with frequent aerial assaults and shelling of hospitals and clinics, in violation of international law.
The report comes days after an MSF-supported facility in the northwestern province of Idlib was hit in an airstrike that killed 25 people.
MSF did not assign blame for the attack.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said the air raid appeared to have been carried out by Russian jets in support of the Syrian government.
Excluding the US and allies attacking Islamic State positions, the only side in the Syrian conflict who posesses air power is that allied with the Syrian regime.
Local media activists told The New Arab that hospital workers and doctors are often put under pressure by the regime not to blame any side for attacks against the injured whom they treat, or on their own facilities.
The MSF report said 63 facilities it supports in north, northwestern, and central Syria had been hit in a total of 93 aerial and shelling attacks throughout 2015, with 12 completely destroyed.
A total of 83 health workers at the facilities were killed or wounded in the attacks, the group added.
All the facilities supported by MSF are located in opposition-held areas of Syria, because the group does not have government permission to work in regime-held regions and does not operate in territory held by the Islamic State group.
The group said several of the incidents were so-called "double-tap" attacks, in which a second strike followed shortly after the first, increasing the chances of casualties among those responding to the initial incident.
"This indicates that in some instances the attacks go beyond indiscriminate violence, using targeted attacks against rescue workers - including medical responders - as a method of war," MSF said.
MSF said it recorded the deaths of more than 7,000 people at 70 of the facilities it supports in Syria in 2015 alone, with more than 154,000 people wounded.
Between 30 and 40 percent of those casualties were women and children, "indicating that civilian areas were consistently hit by aerial bombardments and other forms of attack", MSF said.
The group noted that its report only covered a fraction of all the health facilities in Syria, and did not account for deaths outside clinics or from war-related issues such as malnutrition or lack of appropriate treatment.
"The real situation on the ground is thus likely to be much worse than depicted in this report," it said.
"Medical facilities and staff have routinely been subjected to violence, with the result that large sections of the population have been left without healthcare," the report said.
"The health infrastructure in Syria has been decimated."
The group called for an end to attacks on civilian targets and the protection of medical facilities and staff.
The United Nations has condemned air raids on hospitals and schools in northern Syria could and said they could amount to war crimes.
The international charity, known by its French initials MSF, warned Syria's health infrastructure "has been decimated", with frequent aerial assaults and shelling of hospitals and clinics, in violation of international law.
The report comes days after an MSF-supported facility in the northwestern province of Idlib was hit in an airstrike that killed 25 people.
MSF did not assign blame for the attack.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said the air raid appeared to have been carried out by Russian jets in support of the Syrian government.
Excluding the US and allies attacking Islamic State positions, the only side in the Syrian conflict who posesses air power is that allied with the Syrian regime.
Local media activists told The New Arab that hospital workers and doctors are often put under pressure by the regime not to blame any side for attacks against the injured whom they treat, or on their own facilities.
The MSF report said 63 facilities it supports in north, northwestern, and central Syria had been hit in a total of 93 aerial and shelling attacks throughout 2015, with 12 completely destroyed.
A total of 83 health workers at the facilities were killed or wounded in the attacks, the group added.
All the facilities supported by MSF are located in opposition-held areas of Syria, because the group does not have government permission to work in regime-held regions and does not operate in territory held by the Islamic State group.
The group said several of the incidents were so-called "double-tap" attacks, in which a second strike followed shortly after the first, increasing the chances of casualties among those responding to the initial incident.
"This indicates that in some instances the attacks go beyond indiscriminate violence, using targeted attacks against rescue workers - including medical responders - as a method of war," MSF said.
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https://t.co/sb610pJTgs pic.twitter.com/mXSLULNOeN — Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) February 15, 2016 " style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post
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MSF said it recorded the deaths of more than 7,000 people at 70 of the facilities it supports in Syria in 2015 alone, with more than 154,000 people wounded.
Between 30 and 40 percent of those casualties were women and children, "indicating that civilian areas were consistently hit by aerial bombardments and other forms of attack", MSF said.
The group noted that its report only covered a fraction of all the health facilities in Syria, and did not account for deaths outside clinics or from war-related issues such as malnutrition or lack of appropriate treatment.
"The real situation on the ground is thus likely to be much worse than depicted in this report," it said.
"Medical facilities and staff have routinely been subjected to violence, with the result that large sections of the population have been left without healthcare," the report said.
"The health infrastructure in Syria has been decimated."
The group called for an end to attacks on civilian targets and the protection of medical facilities and staff.
The United Nations has condemned air raids on hospitals and schools in northern Syria could and said they could amount to war crimes.
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