TEMPO.CO, Beirut-Air strikes hit a hospital in a rebel-held area of Syria's Aleppo and killed at least 27 people, including three children and the city's last pediatrician, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday, April 28, 2016.
The al-Quds hospital was supported by international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which said it was destroyed after being hit by a direct air strike that killed at least three doctors.
The head of a rescue service put the death toll at 50, saying most of the dead were in a building next door.
Aleppo has been the epicentre of a military escalation that has helped to undermine U.N.-led peace talks in recent weeks. A cessation of hostilities agreement has unravelled and fighting has resumed on numerous fronts in western Syria.
"Destroyed #MSF-supported hospital in Aleppo was well known locally and hit by direct airstrike on Wednesday. Hospitals are #notatarget," an MSF Twitter account said.Bebars Mishal of the Civil Defence in Aleppo told Reuters that 40 people had been killed in a five-storey building next to the hospital.
A Syrian military source said government warplanes had not been used in areas where airstrikes were reported.
The Russian defence ministry, which is also conducting air strikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, could not immediately be reached for comment. Russia has previously denied hitting civilian targets in Syria.
The Syrian military source said the army has been responding to insurgent attacks in Aleppo, adding: "If the militants continue using this fire and bombardment of civilians, the army will certainly not be quiet about it."
