A hospital inside a cave in northeastern Syria has been forced to shut down after being hit by suspected “bunker-buster” missiles, according to an international aid organization.
The hospital just outside of Hama — about 45 kilometers (27 miles) north of Homs — was hit Sunday, according to the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM).
“It is suspected that the hospital was targeted by so-called ‘bunker-buster’ missiles as it was well fortified in a cave and impervious to previous attacks,” said Dr. Abdallah, the hospital’s director and head of Hama’s healthcare directorate, according to UOSSM.
However, the attack destroyed the emergency department, forcing all patients and medical equipment to be moved off-site. No one was killed in the attack. The hospital performed 150 operations and treated up to 50 intensive care cases a month. It was thought to be well protected from potential attacks due to its location.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber struck Hama’s al-Assi Square Monday, according to Syrian state-run news agency SANA. It is not yet clear how many casualties there are.
The Hama region is under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but jihadist groups Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa are active in the area, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Fight for Aleppo
Sunday’s airstrike was the latest in a growing list of systematic attacks on hospitals throughout Syria.
As fighting intensifies for Aleppo — Syria’s largest city — treatment for the injured there is becoming even more elusive.
Only one of the city’s four hospitals remains fully functional after the shelling of facilities last week.
A spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society, Adham Sahloul, said there were just 30 doctors for some 300,000 people in eastern Aleppo. Many people also lack access to clean water due to shelling of infrastructure, he said.
Government warplanes have targeted civilian gathering places such as markets, hospitals and mosques for several days, an activist with the opposition Aleppo Media Center told CNN.
“Indiscriminate bombing and shelling continues in a shocking and unrelenting manner, killing and maiming civilians, subjecting them to a level of savagery that no human should have to endure,” United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien said Sunday.
O’Brien called for a 48-hour weekly pause in the fighting so aid could enter the city.
Strategic seizure
The past week’s attacks on rebel-held areas of this key city involved some of the worst violence since the start of the war in 2011.
Forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now control the strategic area around al-Kindi Hospital in northern Aleppo, pro-regime media and activists said, strengthening their push toward the eastern part of the city.
SANA said the army took over the hospital, perched on a strategic hill in the northern countryside of Aleppo, killing “many terrorists” and seizing their ammunition. State-sponsored media regularly label opposition groups as “terrorists.”
The takeover of al-Kindi hospital and the surrounding area cuts off a major rebel supply route that connected Aleppo to the northern towns between it and the Turkish border.
Ammar Abdullah, a photographer based in the suburbs of Aleppo, told CNN that the recent regime advances were very significant. “The takeover will further choke off the already under-supplied eastern Aleppo,” he said.
Final ground assault?
An estimated 10,000 regime-backed troops have gathered in advance of a possible final ground assault against rebels in Aleppo.
On Sunday, the Syrian military called on rebels to leave the besieged eastern areas of Aleppo, saying that the Syrian and Russian forces “guarantee their safety,” according to a statement from the Syrian army.
The military called for “all armed men in the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city to leave these neighborhoods and leave the civilian residents to live their lives normally,” the statement published on state-run media said.
But Zakaria Malahfji of the Fastaqim Union rebel group in Aleppo said resistance would continue.
“We are not thinking at all of leaving the city, we chose the path of revolution and we will not surrender, in fact there are residents that are starting to carry weapons and fight the regime, there is a state of people’s resistance now in Aleppo,” Malahfji told CNN.
An estimated 430,000 people have been killed in Syria since war broke out in 2011, following a government crackdown on opposition demonstrators. Millions have been displaced inside Syria or fled the country.