Warplanes struck a town in a opposition-held enclave in northwestern Syria, killing at least 10 people, opposition activists and a rescue service said Thursday. The attack has also put a local hospital out of service, they added.
The late Wednesday night assault on Ariha, a town in Idlib province, is believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes backing a Syrian regime offensive.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll from the airstrikes was at least 10 civilians. Meanwhile, the rescue Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, said 11 people, including a child, were killed when the Russian warplanes hit a road used by displaced people trying to leave Ariha.
Both the Observatory and the White Helmets said a local hospital and a bakery were struck.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry rejected the claims, calling them a “provocation.” Russian warplanes did not fly any combat missions in the area, the ministry stressed.
At least six people, relatives of patients, were killed as they waited outside the hospital, said Zuheir Qarat, a surgeon, the Associated Press reported.
An anesthesiologist was critically wounded, Qarat said, and remained at the hospital for over an hour until rescuers were able to evacuate him after the raids ended, along with 15 patients.
Hospital generators and one hospital car were burned, he added. No patients were hurt.
The UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock described to the Security Council on Wednesday the dire conditions in the opposition-held areas.
At least 20,000 people were displaced in the last two days, he said, adding that 115,000 left their homes in the past week, bringing total of those uprooted by the violence since December to 390,000.
“Many families are moving multiple times. They arrive in a place thought to be safe, only for the bombs to follow, so they are forced to move again," he said.
“This cycle is all too familiar in northwest Syria.”
