by Our Foreign Desk

RUSSIA dismissed claims yesterday that its warplanes had bombed a Syrian hospital in Idlib province supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and killed at least nine people.

MSF said that the hospital in the town of Maaret alNuman had been hit four times in attacks a few minutes apart, leaving the local population of around 40,000 without access to medical services.

“We categorically reject such claims, even more so because each time those who make such claims prove unable somehow to corroborate their unsubstantiated accusations,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Syria’s ambassador to Russia accused the US military, which also carries out bombing raids, of the hospital’s destruction. The US was forced to apologise and pay compensation after killing 42 people and injuring over 30 in an air strike on an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in October 2015.

That bombing was ordered by US commanders and the strike team questioned its legality at the time. In neighbouring Aleppo province, five people also died yesterday when a missile struck a children’s hospital in the town of Azaz, while seven people died when a school in a nearby village was bombed.

Syrian government troops, who have made major advances in Aleppo province in recent weeks backed by Russian air support, seized the villages of Ahras and Misqan and captured a power station in eastern Aleppo from rebels who had used it as a jail.

The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish and Arab groups, have captured the major town of Tel Rifaat, one of the largest militant strongholds in the province, as well as the village of Kfar Naseh to the south.

SDF fighters further captured the village of Sheikh Issa and are approaching the rebel stronghold of Marea. Mediators are trying to negotiate an agreement whereby the jihadists holding Marea would surrender in exchange for safe passage to Azaz, near the border with Turkey.

The SDF has accused Turkey of killing six civilians in Syria since it began shelling the north to stop Kurdish fighters from moving towards Azaz.