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MSF: Healthcare in Syria has collapsed

Russia’s Health Minister, Veronika Skvortsova, denied Moscow was responsible, saying its military had targeted Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) infrastructure and that she had no reason to believe it had bombed civilians.

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Nine hospital staffers and 16 other people were killed, including a child, Doctors Without Borders Spokesman Tim Shenk said.

“We have slid into a time of a new Cold War”, he said. “While bombs are falling from the sky and people are being massacred under the pressure of the regime or are being starved, the talks can not be very fruitful”, Cavusoglu said.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said Saudi Arabia has resumed air strikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria.

However, the U.S. State Department statement did not mention Idlib specifically, while only condemning air strikes that hit two civilian hospitals “in and around Aleppo”, identifying them as a MSF-run hospital and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the city of Aziz.

“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict”, MSF head of mission Massimiliano Rebaudengo said.

The other hospital that was hit was about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away, in Maara al-Numan in Idlib province. A third air raid hit a school in a nearby village, killing seven and wounding others.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, the attack reportedly appeared to have been carried out by Russian warplanes participating in an aerial campaign in support of the Syrian government.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced plans for the cease-fire, which, for technical and legal reasons diplomats are calling a “cessation of hostilities”, after an intense round of meetings in Munich last Thursday.

“It can only be considered deliberate, probably carried out by Syrian-government-led coalition that is predominantly active in the region”, MSF said.

The north has been the focus of the most intense clashes in recent weeks in Syria. The SDF has been one of the most effective forces in fighting the extremists and has liberated large parts of northern Syria.

Also Tuesday, government forces and allied gunmen captured a power station in eastern Aleppo from the IS group, which had used it as a jail. She said MSF’s policy of not informing Syrian or Russian officials about the location of health facilities has become a “hot topic” inside the organization.

They include rebels as well as Islamist fighters, all of them armed, he added.

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Speaking in Damascus, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said aid convoys will be sent on Wednesday in what will be a test of whether the warring parties will allow in humanitarian supplies.

Investigate Russia for war crimes over Syria hospital bombing, says UK foreign secretary