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Air Raid Kills Several Medical Workers near Aleppo – Monitors | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Damaged Red Cross and Red Crescent medical supplies lie inside a warehouse after an airstrike on western Aleppo, September 20, 2016/ Reuters-Ammar Abdullah


Khan Touman, a town southwest of Aleppo in Syria, was hit by an air raid carried out late Tuesday by Syrian or Russian warplanes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

One nurse is critically wounded and at least four medics and nine rebel fighters were killed when the air strike hit the clinic in the Syrian village. The British-based Observatory said the rebels killed were from Jaish al-Fatah.

Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) confirmed in a statement that the four medics killed are of its own staff. UOSSM said that the four were in two ambulances that had been called to the clinic to take some patients for more specialized treatment.

The clinic was completely levelled before Midnight on Tuesday, and more dead were feared to be buried under the rubble, the group added.

“The building has three floors, including a basement. Because of the intensity of the bombardment, the three storeys collapsed and are completely destroyed,” the groups’ hospitals and trauma director for the area, Ahmed Dbais, said in a statement.

“We don’t yet know exactly how many dead there are.”

According to the World Heath Organization, Syria is the most dangerous country in the world for health professionals with 135 strikes on clinics and hospitals last year.

The head of UOSSM France, Dr. Ziad Alissa, condemned the “unacceptable” attack on the group’s clinic and staff.

“Deliberately targeting humanitarian workers and medical professionals is a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.