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Airstrikes Batter Women's Hospital in Syria, Monitor, Aid Group Say


This photo provided by the Shafak Charity Organization, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows shows the badly damaged exterior of a medical facility dedicated to women after it was hit by four airstrikes that also killed two civilians in northern Idlib province, Syria, Nov. 25, 2016.
This photo provided by the Shafak Charity Organization, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows shows the badly damaged exterior of a medical facility dedicated to women after it was hit by four airstrikes that also killed two civilians in northern Idlib province, Syria, Nov. 25, 2016.

Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded a women's hospital in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Friday, killing three people nearby, a monitoring group and an aid organization said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said airstrikes battered the hospital in Termanin village on the border between Idlib and Aleppo provinces, knocking it out of service. Damascus and Moscow both deny targeting hospitals.

Four consecutive rockets hit the gynecology hospital, said Asaad al-Halabi, advocacy manager at Shafak, the Syrian aid group that runs the facility.

"Today is the international day for the elimination of violence against women," he added.

The strikes destroyed the eastern side of the building and damaged the emergency and operating rooms, the aid group said in a statement.

This photo provided by the Shafak Charity Organization, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an ambulance destroyed following four consecutive airstrikes on a medical facility dedicated to women in northern Idlib province, Syria, Nov. 25, 2016.
This photo provided by the Shafak Charity Organization, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an ambulance destroyed following four consecutive airstrikes on a medical facility dedicated to women in northern Idlib province, Syria, Nov. 25, 2016.

A video shared by Shafak showed a wrecked ambulance and the building's facade reduced to rubble.

Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of the Syrian government and its Russian ally of deliberately attacking hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in areas controlled by rebels.

Moscow and Damascus say their air campaign is directed only against militants.

Syria's war pits President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies or the United States.

Idlib, in northwest Syria, contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by rebels — both nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters including the former al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front.

Moscow's deputy foreign minister has accused rebels of using civilians and "so-called hospitals" as shields and setting up medical facilities in cities without correctly marking them.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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