UN Condemns Shelling of Medical Facilities in Syria

The United Nations condemned on Tuesday the shelling of medical facilities in northwestern Syria in the past three days.

“The UN is deeply disturbed by three separate reported attacks on hospitals and health facilities in northwestern Syria, depriving thousands of people of their basic right of health,” said David Swanson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The shelling targeted the opposition-held Idlib province and damaged a medical center and put two hospitals out of service

“Such violence is completely unacceptable,” Swanson told AFP.

The UN did not specify who was behind the attacks but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed the Syrian regime and its ally Russia.

On Tuesday, a medical center in the town of Hbeit in the south of Idlib was “severely damaged” in artillery shelling, Swanson said.

Regime shelling blew a crater into the walls of the center, said an AFP correspondent who visited the facility.

Its interior was littered with rubble, he said.

Earlier on Monday, an air strike hit a hospital in the town of Latamna in neighboring Hama province, putting it out of service, Swanson said.

The hospital used to carry out 1,300 outpatient consultations and more than 300 operations a month before it was attacked, he said.

A third facility — The Madiq Castle hospital in Hama– was also put out of service when it was hit by an air strike two days ago, causing heavy damage to its outpatient clinic, pharmacy and laboratory, Swanson said.

The hospital had served about 8,000 people a month, he added.

“All three incidents further limit civilians’ access to basic health care in northwest Syria,” he said.

“The UN continues to call on all the parties to the conflict to end the destruction of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure that is essential for the civilian population.”

Russia and opposition-backer Turkey in September inked a buffer zone deal to prevent a massive regime offensive on the Idlib region, near the Turkish border.

But the region of some three million people has come under increasing bombardment since former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took full control of it in January.

The escalation has killed more than 200 civilians since February, the UN said last week.

The Observatory said two civilians were killed in Tuesday’s shelling on Idlib and neighboring Hama.

Despite the low casualty count, it said Tuesday’s attacks were the most intense since the September truce.

The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it began with the bloody repression of anti-regime protests in 2011.

Source: UN Condemns Shelling of Medical Facilities in Syria | Asharq AL-awsat