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UN raises exception over hospital bombings
Geneva – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday condemned attacks on five Syrian hospitals –including two trauma centres and an emergency obstetric centre as well as a mobile medical clinic. The UN health agency demanded that all parties to the five-year conflict in Syria “respect the neutrality of health workers, health facilities and medical supplies”.“The pattern of attacks indicates that health care is being deliberately targeted in the Syrian conflict – this is a major violation of international law and a tragic disregard of our common humanity,” WHO said in a statement. “These attacks have seriously reduced the availability of health services in northern Syria and resulted in a major disruption of referrals of critically injured and ill patients,” the agency added. The WHO statement comes one day after the Syrian Air Force launched several airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, targeting rebel-held districts. A major children’s hospital was repeatedly hit along with an adjacent blood bank. “Assad’s air force bombed al-Bayan Children’s Hospital in Aleppo, causing dozens of casualties,” local media activist Ahmed Halwani told ARA News. At least 26 civilians, including children, were killed. Halwani said that “many others remained trapped under the rubble.” Such attacks in the war-ravaged country have increased in both frequency and scale, according to the UN health agency. The United Nations has documented 126 such attacks across Syria thus far in 2016. Posted by: badanov 2016-11-18 |
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