Air strikes on Aleppo hospital kill doctors, children

“There is no neighbourhood that hasn’t been hit. Everyone here fears for their

lives and nobody knows what is coming next”

BEIRUT/GENEVA: Air strikes destroyed a hospital and killed dozens of people in rebel-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo including children and doctors, while the United Nations called on Moscow and Washington to salvage a “barely alive” ceasefire.

The city of Aleppo is at the centre of a military escalation that has undermined peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the five-year-old war and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura appealed to the presidents of the United States and Russia to intervene.

Six days of air strikes and rebel shelling in Aleppo, which is split between government and rebel forces, have killed 200 people, two-thirds of them on the opposition side, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

The “catastrophic deterioration” in Aleppo over the last 24 to 48 hours has jeopardised the aid lifeline that supplies millions of Syrians, said Jan Egeland, chairman of the UN humanitarian task force.

“I could not in any way express how high the stakes are for the next hours and days.”

The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has created the world’s worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of Islamic State and drawn in regional and major powers, but the negotiations have all but failed and a truce to allow them to take place has collapsed.

Winding up the Geneva talks, de Mistura said he aimed to resume them in May, but gave no date. “Wherever you are, you hear explosions of mortars, shelling and planes flying over,” said Valter Gros, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross Aleppo office.

“There is no neighbourhood of the city that hasn’t been hit. People are living on the edge. Everyone here fears for their lives and nobody knows what is coming next,” he said.

A Syrian military source said government planes had not been in areas where air raids were reported.

Syria’s army denied reports that the Syrian air force targetted the hospital.

The Russian defence ministry, whose air strikes have swung the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, also denied its planes were responsible.

The British-based Observatory said 31 people were killed as a result of air strikes on several areas of opposition-held Aleppo on Thursday.

In addition, it said at least 27 people were killed in the air strike on the hospital late on Wednesday. Rescue workers put the toll higher.

In government areas, rebel mortar shelling killed at least 14 people, the Observatory and Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000.

The bombed al-Quds hospital was supported by international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which said it was destroyed after being hit by a direct air strike that killed at least three doctors.

“This devastating attack has destroyed a vital hospital in Aleppo, and the main referral centre for paediatric care in the area,” said Muskilda Zancada, MSF head of mission, Syria.

“Where is the outrage among those with the power and obligation to stop this carnage?”ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Reuters in Geneva: “It is unacceptable, any attack on hospitals is a war crime. But it is up to an investigator and it is for a court to take that decision on whether it is a war crime or not.”

Peace talks, which have been deeply divided on the future of Assad, looked to be over last week when the opposition walked out, saying the Syrian government was stalling for time to advance on the ground, and calling for implementation of a UN resolution requiring full humanitarian access to besieged areas.

De Mistura voiced deep concern at the truce unravelling in Aleppo and at least three other places, but also said he saw some narrowing of positions between the government and opposition visions of political transition.