At least 9 killed in attack on hospital in Syria

Facility operated by Doctors Without Borders completely destroyed in airstrike presumably carried out by Russian jets

By AP and AFP 15 February 2016, 12:30 pm
FILE: This image made from a Wednesday, May 14, 2014 video posed by Shaam News Network (SNN), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a bombing of a military base in Wadi Deif, northwest Syria. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rebels placed a large amount of explosives in a tunnel under the base, which is near Idlib. (Shaam News Network via AP video)

A spokeswoman for an international aid agency said Monday that a makeshift clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders has been destroyed by an airstrike in northern Syria.

Mirella Hodeib said her group, also known by its French acronym MSF, had no immediate word on casualties from Monday’s airstrike in the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor group, nine people including a child were killed in the attack.

The NGO said the hospital was most likely hit by a Russian airstrike.

“A building that housed a hospital supported by MSF was destroyed on Monday by aircraft, presumably Russian,” near Maaret al-Numan, said the British-based monitor.

The raids also left dozens wounded, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

MSF supports around 150 hospitals in Syria.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in northern Syria under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

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