At least 12 people were killed on Tuesday when a Russian airstrike hit the Sarmin field hospital in northwest Syria.
Witness reports and video suggest the airstrike was a “double-tap,” with the second round hitting first responders who were aiding the victims of the initial strike. The clinic was run by the Syrian-American Medical Society. SAMS told AFP on Wednesday that their initial reports indicated two staff members had been killed.
Geolocated yesterday's explosion (most prob. #RuAF bomb) in #Sarmin, #Idlib Gov., #Syria. https://t.co/EZd9XNTiSy pic.twitter.com/Ac1BNMZwfA
— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) October 21, 2015
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova denied the reports and criticized the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which first reported the attack, saying it was accurate “about the same percentage of time you would expect it to be if you were getting your information from a waiter in a pizzeria.”
But SAMS told Grasswire that Tuesday’s Russian airstrike resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including two medial staff, and 28 additional civilians were injured.
SAMS said the hospital was targeted twice, with the second attack coming within ten minutes of the first strike. The second strike severely injured many of the people who had rushed to rescue the injured after the first attack.
Since Oct. 2 there have been roughly eight other attacks on medical facilities, including SAMS facilities, by Russian airstrikes, the organization said.
The rebel-held city of Sarmin is in Syria’s Idlib province, which Russia’s military has regularly targeted since airstrikes began on the last day of September.
