Syrian airstrikes hit hospital, kill at least 20 in Aleppo

A boy cries over the victim of an airstrike on rebels in Aleppo, Syria

(Image credit: Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 28 April 2016

Just before midnight in Syria, several airstrikes hit a well-known hospital in a rebel-held area of Aleppo, killing at least 20 people, including three children, a dentist, and one of the last pediatricians left in the divided city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Thursday. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said 14 patients at a hospital it backs were among the dead, and other groups in the city put the death toll from the strike higher than 20.

Opposition leaders blamed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the attack. "Whoever carries out these massacres needs a war tribunal and a court of justice to be tried for his crimes," chief Syrian opposition negotiator Mohammed Alloush told The Associated Press. "He does not need a negotiating table." Meanwhile, Staffan de Mistura, the special United Nations envoy for Syria, told the U.N. Security Council early Thursday that a Feb. 27 cease-fire is "hanging by a thread" and pleaded with the U.S. and Russia to ramp up their efforts to revive the peace process.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.