An airstrike on a pediatric hospital in Syria has killed 50 people, rights and humanitarian groups say, as the United Nations warns that the situation in Aleppo has become "catastrophic" amid intensified fighting in recent days.
The U.N.
special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters in Geneva on
Thursday that Syria's nationwide "cessation of hostilities" is under
serious threat of collapse, and that a humanitarian disaster is
unfolding as violence increases in Aleppo and three other locations.
Al Quds field hospital, situated in a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo, was hit by a missile from a fighter jet Wednesday, witnesses said.
The
airstrike killed at least 50 people, according to Pablo Marco,
operations manager for Doctors Without Borders in the Middle East.
Marco
told CNN that at least six of the dead were hospital staff: Two
doctors, two nurses, one guard and one maintenance worker. The death
toll could still rise.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack and pointed a finger of blame at the Syrian government.
"We
are outraged by yesterday's airstrikes in Aleppo on the al Quds
hospital supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the International
Committee of the Red Cross, which killed dozens of people, including
children, patients and medical personnel," he said in a statement.
"It
appears to have been a deliberate strike on a known medical facility
and follows the Assad regime's appalling record of striking such
facilities and first responders. These strikes have killed hundreds of
innocent Syrians."
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