Russian missiles on hospitals and schools "are war crimes"

Today, France and Turkey harshly condemned Moscow’s bombing of civilian targets. But the Kremlin has not yet made statements. The missiles have caused at least 50 deaths, including civilians and medical personnel. The new violence "cast shadows" on a short-term resolution of the conflict.

 


Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) – Yesterday’s bombing of hospitals and schools in northern Syria allegedly by Russian missiles is a "war crime". This is the statement made this morning by France and Turkey, harshly condemning the launching of rockets against civilian targets in the country.

Meanwhile, the death toll is worsening by the hour, with UN sources that confirm the death of at least 50 people. Of these, 12 were killed in Azaz on the Turkish border; seven other people were buried by the collapse of a hospital of Doctors Without Borders in Maarat al-Numan and eight remain missing.

The Turkish foreign minister attributed the responsibility for yesterday’s attack to Moscow, but there has been no immediate comment from the Kremlin. Meanwhile the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has expressed strong doubts about a resolution of the conflict.

Only last week the major powers meeting in Munich had agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" and outlined the stages of a gradual ceasefire, which would begin at the end of this week.

However, only hours following the agreement, President Assad had stated that the definition of a truce would not "necessarily result in the downing of arms by all the forces in the field." In a television interview he said: "The powers say they will interrupt hostilities within a week. But who can meet all these conditions and requests in a week? "

The United Nations has said that the raids on civilian targets "cast" shadows on a solution of the Syrian crisis, which in five years has claimed more than 260 thousand dead, created  4.6 million refugees and at least 12 million internally displaced persons.