Airstrikes destroyed the last operating hospital in east Aleppo, leaving up to 2,50,000 residents without access to surgery or medical care in the war-torn region, The Guardian reported on Sunday. The attack follows the destruction of four hospitals on Friday. The World Health Organisation’s representative in Syria, Elizabeth Hoff, said that a United Nations-led consortium of aid agencies in Turkey had “confirmed today that all hospitals in eastern Aleppo are out of service”, Al Jazeera reported.
Médecins Sans Frontières said hospitals in the city’s eastern section had been targeted in 30 attacks since July and that supplies could not be sent to the volatile area. Doctors and residents inside Aleppo said there were no more than two weeks’ supplies of food and medicines left inside the city.
United States’ National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Washington condemned the targeting of hospitals and urged Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to curb the violence in the region, Al Jazeera reported.
Fighting between forces loyal to Assad and rebel groups intensified after a ceasefire deal broke down in September when an aid convoy was bombed in Aleppo. More than 3,00,000 people have died in the six-year-long civil war and nearly half the country’s population has been forced to flee since it began.
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