BEIRUT (AP) — A medical relief organization says four of its staff have been killed in an attack on a medical facility in Syria.

The International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations says an airstrike Tuesday night in northern Syria leveled a medical triage point in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group puts the toll at 13 dead, among them four nurses and paramedics and nine rebel fighters, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

It says the triage point was located in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, south of Aleppo.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike. </s> BEIRUT — A medical relief organization says four of its staff have been killed in an attack on a medical facility in Syria.

The International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations says an airstrike Tuesday night in northern Syria leveled a medical triage point in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group puts the toll at 13 dead, among them four nurses and paramedics and nine rebel fighters, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

It says the triage point was located in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman, south of Aleppo.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike. </s> BEIRUT — An airstrike on a medical facility in northern Syria has killed at least five staff members, the medical relief organization that runs the facility said today.

The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night leveled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

The U.S. office of UOSSM said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed and one nurse remained in a critical condition following the attack on the medical facility in Khan Touman. UOSSM said the nurse later died of her injuries.

It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed.

"This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities," said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike.

The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack." The convoy was carrying aid materials from the U.N.

The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria's cease-fire deal, Russia and the U.S. The U.S. said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria's rebels do not operate an air force.

In New York on Tuesday, Russian and U.S. diplomats insisted that the Syrian cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo's opposition-held neighborhoods.

The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the U.N. suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.'s major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. </s> BEIRUT (AP) - An airstrike on a medical facility in northern Syria has killed at least five staff members, the medical relief organization that runs the facility said Wednesday.

The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night leveled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine terrorists, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

The U.S. office of UOSSM said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed and one nurse remained in a critical condition following the attack on the medical facility in Khan Touman. UOSSM said the nurse later died of her injuries.

It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed.

“This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities,” said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike.

The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack.” The convoy was carrying aid materials from the U.N.

The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria’s ceasefire deal, Russia and the U.S. The U.S. said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not operate an air force.

In New York on Tuesday, Russian and U.S. diplomats insisted that the Syrian ceasefire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo’s opposition-held neighborhoods.

The ceasefire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the U.N. suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.’s major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. </s> An airstrike on a medical facility in northern Syria has left at least four staff dead, the medical relief organization that runs the facility said Wednesday.

The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night levelled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

The U.S. office of UOSSM said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed and one nurse remained in a critical condition following the attack on the medical facility in Khan Touman. It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed.

“This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities,” said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike.

The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack.” The convoy was carrying aid materials from the U.N.

The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria’s cease-fire deal, Russia and the U.S. The U.S. said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not operate an air force.

In New York on Tuesday, Russian and U.S. diplomats insisted that the Syrian cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo’s opposition-held neighbourhoods.

The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the U.N. suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.’s major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. </s> (CNN) Days of heavy airstrikes have left Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo without a single hospital operating at full capacity, the Syrian American Medical Society told CNN on Saturday.

A number of major trauma hospitals were knocked out of service during recent attacks, according to the medical society.

However, activists working in the city said up to five other hospitals in eastern neighborhoods are still functioning.

"For the first time, eastern Aleppo is out of hospitals operating at full capacity," said Dr. Mazen Kewara, director of the medical society's Turkey office. "There are remaining medical facilities, but they are not operating at full capacity."

One of those hit was a children's hospital, forcing staff to evacuate babies to safety.

Hospitals are desperately needed as an estimated 250,000 people remain trapped while the Syrian regime bombards the city's rebel-held east, which faces dwindling reserves of food, fuel and medical supplies.

On Saturday, at least 38 civilians were killed by the extensive bombardment of eastern Aleppo, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets. The barrage included 250 airstrikes and more than 2,000 artillery rounds.

Powerful video footage that the activist group Aleppo Media Center posted online showed what it said was the immediate aftermath of a bombing at eastern Aleppo's M2 hospital on Friday evening.

A man covered with dust and blood is carried past a body toward a stairwell filled with rubble and splintered wood. Another bandaged, dust-covered patient follows holding what looks like his own IV drip. Patients confined to bed are given face masks to cope with the dust.

A man who appears to be a doctor tells the cameraman, "Everyone in the hospital got injured, even already injured patients have been injured again, God help us."

Another man who seems to be a doctor says the hospital was bombarded, and there has been a direct hit on the intensive care unit, which he says was full of patients, "(especially) those who were transferred from hospitals that have been struck today morning and yesterday evening."

He says staff have had to transfer patients to other hospitals when they don't even know if they are operational, adding "the material damage is so huge in the hospital, unbelievable horror among patients and the medical staff, the ambulances outside can't rescue patients, people can't rescue each other, people are afraid of coming to the hospitals."

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders condemned the airstrikes, saying entire hospitals, electric generators, emergency rooms and wards have been destroyed in eastern Aleppo in more than 30 attacks since July.

"It is not only MSF that condemns indiscriminate attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, but also humanitarian law," said Teresa Sancristoval, emergency coordinator for the group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières.

"The message is simple, and I don´t know how to say it any louder: Stop bombing hospitals."

In Washington, national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement: "The United States condemns in the strongest terms these horrific attacks against medical infrastructure and humanitarian aid workers. There is no excuse for these heinous actions."

An activist with the Aleppo Media Center told CNN on Saturday that up to five hospitals are now operating in the northern Syrian City.

The group said there were minor injuries to patients and staff at the M1 surgical hospital after artillery shelling and airstrikes that caused major fires Friday.

At a second facility, the al-Hakim children's hospital, the group told CNN that medical crew and children were evacuated with no injuries and that all babies survived the attacks.

The UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that some hospitals struck in recent airstrikes were out of service for a time but are now operating to some extent.

Syria's grinding five-year conflict has devastated the city, divided between government-controlled areas in the west and rebel positions in the east.

Moscow has sought to distance itself from the latest blitz, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying this week that the Russian air force had not carried out the Aleppo strikes, according to state-run news agency Tass. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption The air strike came a day after an attack on an aid convoy in nearby Urum al-Kubra

An air strike on a medical facility near the Syrian city of Aleppo has killed five employees of an international aid agency, the group says, including nurses.

There have been heavy air raids in and around Aleppo as the United Nations prepares to discuss the failed Syrian ceasefire.

The attack came a day after an aid convoy was targeted in a nearby raid.

Twenty people were killed in that attack, which the US blames on Russia.

The assault, on Monday, destroyed 18 lorries and has been described as a possible war crime.

Russia has strongly denied involvement of its own or Syrian planes, and said the incident was caused by fire on the ground and not by an air strike.

The Paris-based Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) said Tuesday's strike on its facility near Aleppo appeared to be targeted.

At least nine rebel fighters were also killed, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The two successive attacks were "not a coincidence," UOSSM's Dr Zaydoun al Zoubi told the BBC.

"Somebody is trying to tell us humanitarian workers are not welcome in Syria, that we are a target, that we will be killed," he said.

He called for the truce to be restored.

Separately, a Syrian warplane has crashed north of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says. The so-called Islamic State group said the plane had been bombing its positions but did not claim they shot it down.

Buried under rubble

It is unclear who carried out the attack on the medical centre in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman late on Tuesday night local time.

The Syrian Observatory said either Syrian or Russian warplanes were responsible, Reuters news agency reports.

The strike hit a medical triage point, and killed two ambulance drivers and two nurses who had arrived to transport wounded patients to a more advanced medical facility, UOSSM said in a statement (in French).

A fifth medic is thought to have died later of their wounds.

The triage centre was completely destroyed. More victims are feared buried under the rubble.

The rebels killed were from Jaish al-Fatah, an Islamist group not officially part of the Western-backed alliance but one that works alongside the Free Syrian Army, the BBC's James Longman in Beirut reports.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The convoy had been unloading aid at a warehouse when it was attacked

Blame game

Speaking about Monday's attack on the aid convoy, unnamed US officials said the strike was too sophisticated to have been carried out by the Syrian army.

Later, White House spokesman Ben Rhodes said: "There only could have been two entities responsible, either the Syrian regime or the Russian government.

"In any event, we hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this space."

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman said the US government had "no facts" to support its claim.

"There are no craters and the exterior of the vehicles do not have the kind of damage consistent with blasts caused by bombs dropped from the air," a statement from the defence ministry said.

However photographs show at least one crater, in a warehouse.

The UN had earlier said it was "not in a position to determine whether these were in fact air strikes".

Image copyright AFP Image caption Pictures from Monday's attack site appears to show a crater, contradicting Russian claims that there are none

Monday's attack prompted the UN to suspend all aid convoys in Syria.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, denounced it as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and said it could amount to a war crime.

It occurred hours after the Syrian military declared the end of a week-long truce agreed by the US and Russia.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss efforts to salvage the truce later on Wednesday.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Syrian activist: 'Helicopter dropped bombs on aid convoy' </s> An air strike on a medical facility in northern Syria has killed at least five staff members, the medical relief organisation that runs the facility has said.

The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night levelled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the Jabhat al-Nusra group.

The US office of UOSSM said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed and one nurse remained in a critical condition following the attack on the medical facility in Khan Touman. UOSSM said the nurse later died of her injuries.

It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed.

“This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities,” said Dr Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike.

The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack.” The convoy was carrying aid materials from the UN

The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria's cease-fire deal, Russia and the US The US said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria's rebels do not operate an air force.

In New York on Tuesday, Russian and US diplomats insisted that the Syrian ceasefire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo's opposition-held neighborhoods.

The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the UN suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the UN's major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The UN estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. </s> The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night leveled a medical triage point it operates in rebel-held territory outside the contested city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 13 people were killed in the attack, including nine militants, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.

The U.S. office of UOSSM said two nurses and two ambulance drivers were killed and one nurse remained in a critical condition following the attack on the medical facility in Khan Touman. It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed.

“This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities,” said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.

There were no reports on who was behind the strike.

The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack.” The convoy was carrying aid materials from the U.N.

The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria’s cease-fire deal, Russia and the U.S. The U.S. said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not operate an air force.

In New York on Tuesday, Russian and U.S. diplomats insisted that the Syrian cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo’s opposition-held neighborhoods.

The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the U.N. suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.‘s major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. </s> All hospitals in Syria’s besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo are out of service after days of heavy air strikes, its health directorate and the World Health Organization (WHO) said, though a war monitor said some were still functioning.

White House national security adviser Susan Rice said the United States condemned “in the strongest terms” the latest air strikes against hospitals and urged Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to take steps to halt the violence.

Intense air strikes have battered the eastern part of the city since Tuesday, when the Syrian army and its allies resumed operations after a pause lasting weeks. They launched ground attacks against insurgent positions on Friday.

The war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 48 people, including at least five children, had been killed in eastern Aleppo on Saturday by dozens of air strikes and barrel bombs and dozens of artillery rounds.

That brings the number of people killed by the increased bombardment of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside over the past five days to about 180, including 97 in the city’s besieged eastern sector, the observatory added.

Warplanes, artillery and helicopters continued bombarding eastern Aleppo on Saturday, hitting many of its densely populated residential districts, the Observatory said. There were intense clashes in the Bustan al-Basha district, it added.

“This destruction of infrastructure essential to life leaves the besieged, resolute people, including all children and elderly men and women, without any health facilities offering life-saving treatment ... leaving them to die,” said Aleppo’s health directorate in a statement sent to Reuters late on Friday by an opposition official.

Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria, said on Saturday that a U.N.-led group of aid agencies based over the border in Turkey “confirmed today that all hospitals in eastern Aleppo are out of service”.

The monitoring group said some hospitals were still operating in besieged parts of Aleppo but said many residents were frightened to use them because of the heavy shelling.

Medical sources, residents and rebels in eastern Aleppo say hospitals have been damaged by air strikes and helicopter barrel bombs in recent days, including direct hits on the buildings.

“The United States again joins our partners ... in demanding the immediate cessation of these bombardments and calling on Russia to immediately deescalate violence and facilitate humanitarian aid and access for the Syrian people,” Rice said in a statement.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that reports of air strikes hitting civilians and hospitals in east Aleppo were “sickening” and called for a return to diplomacy.

However, with the United States awaiting the inauguration in late January of President-elect Donald Trump, who has been critical of Washington’s Syria policy without laying out detailed plans himself, diplomatic efforts appear stalled.

Staffan De Mistura, the special envoy of the U.N. secretary general, is likely to meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moalem in Damascus on Sunday after recent talks in Turkey and Iran, another diplomat said.

“He will push on Aleppo, perhaps on a ceasefire, but on the political file there won’t be anything until (U.N. Secretary– General Ban Ki-moon’s successor Antonio) Guterres is in office, the diplomat said.

Both Russia and Assad’s government have denied deliberately targeting hospitals and other civilian infrastructure during the war, which began in 2011 and was joined by Russia’s air force in September 2015.

Russia unilaterally called a ceasefire in late October and said on Saturday it was now only striking against groups that are not also observing it. Rebel groups in Aleppo have all said they do not recognize the Russian ceasefire.

The charity Doctors Without Borders said in a message there had been more than 30 hits on hospitals in eastern Aleppo since early July. “Doctors are few and medical supplies are depleted, with no possibility of sending more supplies in,” it said.

Health and rescue workers have previously been able to bring damaged hospitals back into operation but a lack of supplies is making that harder.

The Syrian war pits Assad and his allies Russia, Iran and Shi’ite militias against Sunni rebels including groups supported by the United States, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies and also jihadist groups.

Aleppo, for years split between a rebel-held east and government-held western sector, has become the fiercest front.

An army offensive backed by a major aerial bombardment from late September to late October killed hundreds, according to the United Nations, and tightened the siege, leaving eastern Aleppo with little food, medicine or fuel.

A rebel counter-attack early this month involved shelling that killed dozens of civilians, the U.N. said, but it quickly petered out and the army and its allies, including Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, reversed all insurgent gains in about two weeks.

Syrian state television said on Tuesday the air force had targeted “terrorist strongholds and supply depots” in Aleppo. Russia has said its air force is only conducting air strikes in other parts of Syria. The Damascus government describes all the rebels fighting it as terrorists.
An airstrike yesterday on a medical facility near Aleppo kills five French medical charity workers.