15 dead, 8 missing after 2 hospitals and a school struck in Syria, sources say

Two hospitals and a school building in northern Syria were struck Monday morning, leaving at least 15 people dead at one site and eight missing at another, according to reports.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes.

The 15 people were killed when a hospital and a school building that was housing displaced people were struck in Azaz, in Syria’s Aleppo province, according to a hospital worker on the scene. Up to 40 other people were wounded.

A hospital employee known as Moudhar told CNN that staff were evacuating the wounded after the first strike on the Women and Children’s Hospital when the complex and road were struck again.

Another projectile hit a nearby school building housing displaced people, he added.

In a separate attack, a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders at Maarat al-Numan in Syria’s Idlib province was destroyed in an attack that saw it struck four times within minutes, the medical humanitarian organization said.

At least eight staff members were missing after the attack, the organization said.

“This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,” said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, Doctors Without Borders’ head of mission.

“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict,” Massimiliano said.

The 30-bed hospital had 54 staff members, two operating theaters, an outpatient department an emergency room.

Airstrikes earlier this month killed three people and wounded at least six at a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in Daraa governorate, southern Syria, on February 5, the aid group said.

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