AFP, Aleppo :
The largest hospital in rebel-held east Aleppo was bombed on Saturday for the second time in days as Syrian government forces pressed a Russian-backed offensive to retake the entire city.
Aleppo, once Syria’s vibrant commercial powerhouse, is now at the heart of a major military campaign by President Bashar al-Assad’s fighters and his steadfast ally Moscow.
The offensive, announced on September 22, has seen dozens of civilians killed and residential buildings flattened in the east, where an estimated 250,000 people live under government siege. As the situation for civilians grows increasingly dire, the largest hospital in east Aleppo was hit by two barrel bombs on Saturday, the medical organisation that supports it said.
“Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well,” said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).
Sahloul said a small group of patients and doctors “were inside the hospital for basic triage, bandaging, and cleaning services for emergency cases” when the bombardment began and remain trapped there.
SAMS radiologist and hospital administrator Mohammad Abu Rajab made an urgent call for help on Saturday morning from inside M10.
“The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!” he said in an audio message distributed to journalists.
M10 had already been hit on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area, known as M2, in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as “war crimes.”
That bombardment heavily damaged the two facilities and left only six fully-functional hospitals in the city’s east, according to SAMS.
At the bombed hospital, an AFP journalist saw blood-stained hospital beds and dented equipment lying in disarray beneath blown-out windows, while medical staff in green scrubs picked through the rubble outside to assess the damage.
“A new barrel bomb fell this afternoon in front of the hospital, forcing medical staff… to evacuate all patients to another one and leave the hospital,” a doctor at M10 told AFP.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault denounced the strikes, saying that “the systematic targeting of structures and health workers is particularly unjustifiable”. “This new attack only confirms the absolute urgency of a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo and access for civilian populations to the humanitarian assistance they desperately need.”
The largest hospital in rebel-held east Aleppo was bombed on Saturday for the second time in days as Syrian government forces pressed a Russian-backed offensive to retake the entire city.
Aleppo, once Syria’s vibrant commercial powerhouse, is now at the heart of a major military campaign by President Bashar al-Assad’s fighters and his steadfast ally Moscow.
The offensive, announced on September 22, has seen dozens of civilians killed and residential buildings flattened in the east, where an estimated 250,000 people live under government siege. As the situation for civilians grows increasingly dire, the largest hospital in east Aleppo was hit by two barrel bombs on Saturday, the medical organisation that supports it said.
“Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well,” said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).
Sahloul said a small group of patients and doctors “were inside the hospital for basic triage, bandaging, and cleaning services for emergency cases” when the bombardment began and remain trapped there.
SAMS radiologist and hospital administrator Mohammad Abu Rajab made an urgent call for help on Saturday morning from inside M10.
“The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!” he said in an audio message distributed to journalists.
M10 had already been hit on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area, known as M2, in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as “war crimes.”
That bombardment heavily damaged the two facilities and left only six fully-functional hospitals in the city’s east, according to SAMS.
At the bombed hospital, an AFP journalist saw blood-stained hospital beds and dented equipment lying in disarray beneath blown-out windows, while medical staff in green scrubs picked through the rubble outside to assess the damage.
“A new barrel bomb fell this afternoon in front of the hospital, forcing medical staff… to evacuate all patients to another one and leave the hospital,” a doctor at M10 told AFP.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault denounced the strikes, saying that “the systematic targeting of structures and health workers is particularly unjustifiable”. “This new attack only confirms the absolute urgency of a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo and access for civilian populations to the humanitarian assistance they desperately need.”
