Russia carrying out war crime by Syria hospital attack: Turkey

ANKARA — Turkey accused Russia of carrying out an “obvious war crime” on Monday after two schools, a hospital and a Medecins Sans Frontieres medical centre near the Turkish-Syrian border were hit by missiles, killing tens of people. The carnage occurred as Russian-backed Syrian troops intensified their push toward the rebel stronghold of Aleppo and residents blamed the strikes on Russia. Turkey warned that bigger and more serious consequences would be inevitable if Russia does not immediately end such attacks, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said late on Monday. The United Nations and Washington condemned air strikes on medical facilities and schools in Syria that the world body said killed almost 50 civilians, with the US implicating Russia. Also ahead of a hoped-for ceasefire, Kurdish fighters in northern Syria captured a key town despite Turkish cross-border shelling, a monitor said, as Ankara and Moscow traded accusations over their military entanglement in the conflict. Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad poured cold water on the plan for a ceasefire to begin later this week, saying it would be “difficult” to implement. The UN said air strikes on at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria’s Aleppo and Idlib provinces killed nearly 50 civilians including children. UN chief Ban Ki-moon considers that “such attacks are blatant violations of international law,” added the organization’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. The United States, which like the UN did not identify who carried out the air strikes, said two civilian hospitals were hit in and around Aleppo in northern Syria: one run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and another in Azaz city. Such action “casts doubt on Russia’s willingness and/or ability to help bring to a stop the continued brutality of the Assad regime against its own people,” the State Department said. UN peace envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived Monday in Damascus, a government source there said, amid the ceasefire push. Without assigning blame, MSF confirmed a hospital supported by the charity was hit in Idlib, northwest Syria, and said seven people were killed and at least eight were missing, presumed dead. Turkey, meanwhile, resumed shelling Kurdish-led forces in several parts of Aleppo, alarmed by their recent advances against mostly Islamist rebels. Ankara accuses the Kurdish forces of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least two children were killed in Monday’s shelling, and an AFP journalist on Turkey’s border said Turkish howitzers fired for around 20 minutes from the Akcabaglar region. Despite the shelling, the coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured Tal Rifaat, the Observatory said. Barely 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border, the town was seized from an alliance of mostly Islamist rebels. The SDF had already seized the nearby Minnigh airbase and severed the road between Tal Rifaat and rebel-held Azaz on the border. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said Turkish artillery on Monday fired on Tal Rifaat itself for the first time. Turkey fears the Kurds will be able to create a contiguous Kurdish territory just across the border in northern Syria. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned earlier Monday that Ankara would not let Azaz fall to the SDF, adding that “the necessary intervention will be made.”