There has been a marked increase in violent attacks on health care in Syria with 67 reported in the first two months of 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday, denouncing them as “unacceptable.”
In February, a total of 43 incidents of violence against health care facilities, services and workers were reported, of which 39 were verified by external monitors and 4 are still being verified, said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a regular UN media briefing here.
Citing figures released by the health cluster based in Gaziantep, Turkey, Lindmeier said those figures compared to 31 incidents in January, of which 28 were verified.
WHO’s announcement came as regime forces and Iranian militias, backed with Russian air force, are continuing to escalate attacks on different parts of Syria, especially against civilians in eastern Ghouta. According to unofficial figures, more than 800 people in were killed eastern Ghouta alone.
The Syrian Civil Defense in eastern Ghouta said that its rescue teams are continuing to pull bodies from the rubble of buildings that are being targeted by the heavy aerial bombardment. It pointed out that its teams are facing considerable difficulties because of attacks targeting their centers. Many civil defense volunteers were killed while carrying out their duty.
The Syrian Coalition earlier said that the ongoing onslaught on eastern Ghouta is aimed at carry out a genocide against the local population. It held the international community, especially Russia, full responsibility for the fate of some 400,000 people trapped in the besieged Damascus suburb. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
