Government attack on hospital in northwest Syria killed 5

Artillery shells fired from government areas entered a hospital in a rebel-controlled city in northwestern Syria on Sunday, killing at least five civilians and injuring medical staff, rescue teams and activists.

According to Britain’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, shells landed in the hospital’s entrance and courtyard in Atreb, a town in rural western Aleppo. The hospital is underground, a strategy used by the opposition to evade targets in conflict-prone areas.

According to Syrian civilian security volunteers known as white helmets, the explosion killed at least five civilians, including a child and a woman, and injured medical staff. Debris and blood stains appeared at the entrance of the hospital in a video posted on the Facebook page of the local health directorate.

Fadi Hakim, a spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society supporting the hospital, said the structural damage included the destruction of the orthopedic clinic and emergency rooms.

“The hospital has now been evacuated,” he said. Mr. Hakeem said he could only confirm four, including one child, and 15 were injured, five of whom are medical staff.

Attacks on hospitals are common in the Syrian conflict, and most are blamed on the government and allied forces. The health directorate in the rebel-controlled northwest said the attack was the first at a medical facility in the area since February 2020.

Physicians for the United States for Human Rights have documented 598 attacks on at least 350 different health care facilities in Syria since March 2011, most of which are allegedly committed by the Syrian government and allied forces, including Russia. The rights group said that over a period of 10 years, at least 930 medical personnel were killed.

The government considers the areas occupied by the rebels as controlled by terrorists.