Largest hospital in rebel-held Aleppo reportedly destroyed

The largest hospital in the rebel-held territory of Aleppo, Syria, has been destroyed in air raids, Agence France-Presse reports. The bombing of the underground facility, known as M10, followed a week of attacks on the hospital, apparently aimed at forcing the last hangers-on in the area to surrender; recovering Aleppo would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory yet in the civil war, The Washington Post reports.

Monday's attack involved the use of "bunker-buster bombs," which are weapons specifically designed to destroy below-ground structures. "Our initial reports are telling us that three maintenance workers were killed and other staff remain under the rubble," a spokesperson for the Syrian American Medical Society told ABC News.

Aid groups and international watchdogs have expressed serious concerns over such attacks: "This has apparently become an air campaign against civilians," tweeted Jim Sciutto, CNN's chief national security correspondent.

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"When you destroy a hospital or kill a doctor," said Adham Sahloul, a spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society, "that's a death sentence to the people around them."