The largest hospital in the rebel-held side of the Syrian city of Aleppo was hit with barrel bombs and cluster bombs on Saturday, The Guardian reported. This comes just three days after the hospital – M10 – and another hospital in the area were hit by airstrikes.
“The hospital is now out of service completely,” said MA Rajab, a radiologist at the facility, according to Reuters. “There’s destruction to walls, infrastructure, equipment and generators.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one person was killed after bombs also hit a field hospital in the Sakhur district of the city. France condemned the bombing of M10, and said it was “mobilising the Security Council” to discuss the matter and “put a stop to this unacceptable tragedy”.
Only six hospitals now remain active in the region, according to the Syrian American Medical Society. There are only 30 doctors remaining in Aleppo, where an estimated 2,50,000 civilians remain trapped as troops loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fight rebel forces for control of the city. Medical officials have accused the Assad regime of carrying out the “extermination of a major city by starving and killing its 85,000 children using all modern and middle age weaponries”.
Fighting between the two sides has intensified after a September 9 ceasefire between the pro-Assad and rebel camps was called off after an aid convoy was bombed in north Aleppo. More than 3,00,000 people have died in the six-year-long civil war, and nearly half the country’s population forced to flee since it began. While the United States supports rebel groups, Moscow is seen as a key Assad ally.
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