More than 600 medical workers have been killed in Syria’s civil war in deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, most of them by government forces, an international rights group announced Wednesday. The group, Physicians for Human Rights, said it had documented 233 attacks on 183 medical facilities across Syria since the country’s conflict began in March 2011.
In a report, it said that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was responsible for 88 percent of the recorded attacks on hospitals and 97 percent of the killings of medical workers. It documented 139 deaths directly attributable to torture and execution. Separately, Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that desperately needed aid was failing to reach millions of people who were trapped by the conflict, and that a huge increase in medical assistance was required.
Vice President Hisham Marwa said that “these reports once again expose the inaction and the failure of the international community in dealing with the tragic situation in Syria. Although international organizations have documented thousands of Assad’s crimes, the UN Security Council and the international community have so far failed to put an end to these atrocious crimes or to alleviate the suffering of Syrian civilians. This utter silence will bring disgrace on the international community for many years to come unless they expeditiously work to save the Syrian people.”
He warns that this continued silence will further aggravate the plight of the Syrian people and embolden the perpetrators of these atrocities. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
