Syria: Airstrikes destroy Idlib MSF hospital leaving 13 dead

A hospital funded by medical charity Medcins Sans Frontieres [MSF] in a rebel-held province of northern Syria was destroyed by airstrikes over the weekend that killed 13 people, MSF said on Monday. Among the dead were four staff and five children.

"The direct bombing of another hospital in Syria is an outrage,” said Silvia Dallatomasina, MSF's medical manager of operations in northwest Syria, while also calling for an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Syria's war.

MSF said that the hospital in Millis, Idlib province was hit directly by two airstrikes that forced the closure of the medical facility. The hospital served as a referral centre specialising in pediatrics, with an operating theatre and an intensive care unit.

MSF did not specify which government was behind the attacks, however Russia was on Monday accused of dropping phosphorous bombs on central Idlib late Sunday night. The bombings came as rebel groups on the ground prepared for fresh assaults on regime positions.

The medical charity said that the attack has deprived around 70,000 people in Millis and the surrounding towns of medical care, as it used to cater for up to 250 people a day.

Hospitals have been regularly targeted in Syria's conflict, with the UN recording 44 attacks in July alone on medical facilities in the war-torn country. The government of President Bashar al-Assad and his allies in Moscow have denied bombing hospitals in their campaigns against rebel groups.