Fatal air strike targets Syrian maternity hospital

A maternity hospital in Syria’s Idlib province supported by Save the Children has been hit by an air strike.

Two visitors to the hospital have been killed and three others wounded in the attack.

The mother and baby unit is the largest in the area the nearest alternate obstetrics facility is 100km away.

Dr Abdulkarim Ekzayez

Health co-ordinator at Save the Children International:“Our partners, they told us that there were seven airstrikes on the town where the hospital is. Actually, three airstrikes, they were in the surrounding areas of the hospital, while one airstrike targeted the entrance of the hospital. As a result, two people who were waiting in front of the hospital, waiting for their partners who were delivering in the hospital, they were killed.”

It is unclear who is responsible for the raid, but the area is under rebel control and the subject of Russian and Syrian government assaults.

Amnesty International condemned the bombing saying “Deliberate attacks on hospitals and medical facilities are serious violations of the laws of war and can never be justified. Hospitals, which have special protection under international humanitarian law, should be safe places for mothers, new-born infants and medical workers,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director.

The NGO Physicians for Human Rights monitors attacks on medical infrastructure and says that during the conflict 373 attacks on medical facilities, have been carried out with 750 personnel killed.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-07-30

There is a big difference between a stray rocket hitting the entrance of a hospital and a military intentionally targetting a hospital.

It doesn't sound intentional. If I were going to strike an illegitimate civilian hospital, the last place it would be would be a maternity hospital. Nonetheless, it's a shame this happened.

If these terror-mongers would cease hiding behind women and children and fight like men, there wouldn't be any reports of civilians getting killed although, as previously mentioned, this one instance appears to have been unintentional.

If these terror-mongers would cease hiding behind women and children and fight like men, there wouldn't be any reports of civilians getting killed although, as previously mentioned, this one instance appears to have been unintentional.

That's funny you should say that. In the back of my mind I was wondering if it was really a maternity hospital.

It is now alleged the hospital was targeted as a senior terrorist was visiting his wife at the hospital. I assume a decision was made that it was to the greater worth risking losing civilian lives to target the individual concerned, though it is unclear if the target was killed.

If these terror-mongers would cease hiding behind women and children and fight like men, there wouldn't be any reports of civilians getting killed although, as previously mentioned, this one instance appears to have been unintentional.

Agreed! Terror monger Assad should step down and quit barrel bombing innocent civilians.

With their crude accuracy, they've got no idea exactly where the bomb will hit. Even if it was unintentional, what about the other 373 strikes on medical facilities? Also unintentional?

He's responsible for one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the history of the world.

Agreed! Terror monger Assad should step down and quit barrel bombing innocent civilians.

With their crude accuracy, they've got no idea exactly where the bomb will hit. Even if it was unintentional, what about the other 373 strikes on medical facilities? Also unintentional?

He's responsible for one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the history of the world.

Yes of course. If we don't approve of a country's leader, we should bomb them until he resigns or is killed. If that were a real policy, we'd be bombing a lot more places.

Agreed! Terror monger Assad should step down and quit barrel bombing innocent civilians.

With their crude accuracy, they've got no idea exactly where the bomb will hit. Even if it was unintentional, what about the other 373 strikes on medical facilities? Also unintentional?

He's responsible for one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the history of the world.

Yes of course. If we don't approve of a country's leader, we should bomb them until he resigns or is killed. If that were a real policy, we'd be bombing a lot more places.

Assad stepping down and ushering in a full-on ISIS State?

Sure, sounds like a real plan.

So you guys are suggesting it's OK to bomb innocent civilians just to try to get rid of ISIS? Because that's what Russia and Putin are doing.

Assad doesn't have to step down, just stop bombing innocent civilians. And Journalists who try to report the truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Colvin

In February 2012, Colvin crossed into Syria on the back of a motocross motorcycle, ignoring the Syrian government's attempts to prevent foreign journalists from entering Syria to cover the Syrian civil war without permission. Colvin was stationed in the western Baba Amr district of the city of Homs, and made her last broadcast on the evening of February 21, appearing on the BBC, Channel 4, CNN and ITN News via satellite phone.^[26] She described "merciless", indiscriminate shelling and sniper attacks against civilian buildings and people on the streets of Homs by Syrian forces.^[2] Colvin, who had lost an eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka and had covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Libya, and East Timor, described the bombardment of Homs as the worst conflict she had ever experienced.^[27]

Colvin died together with award-winning French photographer, Rémi Ochlik. An autopsy conducted in Damascus by the Syrian government concluded Marie Colvin was killed by an "improvised explosive device filled with nails." ^[28] The Syrian government claims the explosive device was planted by terrorists on February 22, 2012 while fleeing an unofficial media building which was being shelled by the Syrian Army.^[17][29][30] This account was refuted by photographer Paul Conroy, who was with Colvin and Ochlik and survived the attack. Conroy recalled that Colvin and Ochlik were packing their gear when Syrian artillery fire hit their media centre.^[31]

Whew...what a long list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_during_the_Syrian_Civil_War

Great leader, eh?

So you guys are suggesting it's OK to bomb innocent civilians just to try to get rid of ISIS? Because that's what Russia and Putin are doing.

Assad doesn't have to step down, just stop bombing innocent civilians. And Journalists who try to report the truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Colvin

In February 2012, Colvin crossed into Syria on the back of a motocross motorcycle, ignoring the Syrian government's attempts to prevent foreign journalists from entering Syria to cover the Syrian civil war without permission. Colvin was stationed in the western Baba Amr district of the city of Homs, and made her last broadcast on the evening of February 21, appearing on the BBC, Channel 4, CNN and ITN News via satellite phone.^[26] She described "merciless", indiscriminate shelling and sniper attacks against civilian buildings and people on the streets of Homs by Syrian forces.^[2] Colvin, who had lost an eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka and had covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Libya, and East Timor, described the bombardment of Homs as the worst conflict she had ever experienced.^[27]

Colvin died together with award-winning French photographer, Rémi Ochlik. An autopsy conducted in Damascus by the Syrian government concluded Marie Colvin was killed by an "improvised explosive device filled with nails." ^[28] The Syrian government claims the explosive device was planted by terrorists on February 22, 2012 while fleeing an unofficial media building which was being shelled by the Syrian Army.^[17][29][30] This account was refuted by photographer Paul Conroy, who was with Colvin and Ochlik and survived the attack. Conroy recalled that Colvin and Ochlik were packing their gear when Syrian artillery fire hit their media centre.^[31]

Whew...what a long list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_during_the_Syrian_Civil_War

Great leader, eh?

A lot of people forget that Assad bought about the disaster for the Syrian people with his mass murder and systematic torture of opponents of his dictatorship prior to the 2011 demonstrations. In addition his secret release of hundreds of Jihads from his prisons when the armed resistance to his regime gained momentum to try & gain support from foreign powers.

Edited July 30, 20169 yr by simple1

Agreed! Terror monger Assad should step down and quit barrel bombing innocent civilians.

With their crude accuracy, they've got no idea exactly where the bomb will hit. Even if it was unintentional, what about the other 373 strikes on medical facilities? Also unintentional?

He's responsible for one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the history of the world.

Yes of course. If we don't approve of a country's leader, we should bomb them until he resigns or is killed. If that were a real policy, we'd be bombing a lot more places.

Assad stepping down and ushering in a full-on ISIS State?

Sure, sounds like a real plan.

It is a real plan in fact was used in Libya. Just ask "We came, we saw, he died".

Libya is having problems, like every other country in the ME, but nothing like Syria.