At least five medical workers were killed when an airstrike near the Syrian city of Aleppo hit a clinic, the aid organization that runs the facility said early Wednesday.
The Paris-based International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, known by its French initials UOSSM, said the attack Tuesday night at 11 p.m. Damascus time destroyed a medical triage operation in the rebel-held territory of Khan Touman outside Aleppo.
It is unclear who was behind the airstrike. But according to the U.K.-Based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Syrian or Russian warplanes carried out the airstrike. The group said at least 13 people were killed in the raid, including nine rebel fighters from the Islamic alliance Jaish al-Fatah.
Two nurses and two ambulances drivers were killed and one nurse was critically injured following the attack, and the UOSSM later said the nurse died later. Two ambulances were also destroyed and the three-story clinic collapsed, the UOSSM said.
More were feared to be dead and buried under the rubble, the aid organization added.
“This is a deplorable act against healthcare workers and medical facilities,” said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA.
The attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy in nearby Urem al-Kubra that was carrying materials from the United Nations. In that airstrike, roughly 20 civilians were killed and a week-old cease-fire brokered by Russia and the United States collapsed.
U.S. defense officials believe Syrian or Russian warplanes were behind the attack.
The cease-fire was meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged and heard-to-reach areas in Syria, where the U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live without basic needs.
The UOSSM provides free medical care to those living in Syria, also with operations in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
