Further information about Tuesday’s shelling was not immediately available.
Advertisement
The Russian Aerospace Forces’ only aim in Syria is to help the Syrian government forces, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the patriotic opposition to fight off Daesh jihadists and other extremists, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday.
At least 21 civilians were killed and dozens others injured in air strikes and rocket attacks on five medical centers and two schools in separate locations in northern Syria on Monday.
At least 14 people also died in strikes on a children’s hospital and a school in the rebel-held town of Azaz in northwestern Syria on Monday, Reuters reported.
Staff members were evacuating the wounded after the first strike on the Women and Children’s Hospital when the complex and a road leading to the Turkish border were struck again, a hospital employee known as Moudhar told CNN.
In October, MSF and the Red Cross rejected US claims that Russian Federation was targeting several hospitals in Syria, including six MSF facilities. It said seven people were killed and eight others were “missing, presumed dead”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said it suspected that Russian warplanes were behind the attack, based on the location of the raids and the flight patterns and types of planes involved. “We will not allow A’azaz to fall”, Davutoglu said.
The SDF is also advancing in Aleppo itself, according to opposition activists, who say Syrian insurgents repelled an SDF assault on two neighborhoods.
There were also reports on Monday morning of another two hospitals in Azaz city being attacked.
Adnan Seddik, manager of the Syria Charity, a French NGO which runs the hospital in Azaz, said the facility had been hit by a Russian missile.
“We are confident that (there is) no way could it be done by our defence forces”.
“The intensified bombings, the displacement, the fact that civilian entities have been hit by the regime and its backers, is of grave concern”, she said. United Nations Deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said, UN chief Ban Ki-moon termed the attacks as blatant violations of worldwide law. To the east, the so-called Islamic State group, to the west the Syrian Kurds and to the south the Assad forces. Separately, members of the Syria Democratic Forces, a coalition of Arab and Kurdish groups, captured the major town of Tel Rifaat, one of the largest militant strongholds in Aleppo.
De Mistura has been trying to secure aid deliveries to improve the chances of restarting peace talks before the end of February. The talks in Geneva were suspended earlier this month before they got off the ground.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad poured cold water on the plan for a ceasefire to begin later this week, saying it would be “difficult” to implement.
The strikes came days after world powers – including Russian Federation – agreed to work towards a selective truce in Syria, due to begin later this week. “Objective control means have registered more than 100 salvos fired by the Turkish artillery on border settlements in the province of Aleppo”, the spokesman said.
They have angered Turkey, with Davutoglu on Monday issuing Russian Federation a stark warning.
Advertisement
“It reiterates its total rejection and condemnation of these unjust manifestations of violence”, it read.
