The United States on Saturday condemned airstrikes on hospitals in eastern Aleppo, Syria, and it called on Russia to takes steps to contain the violence.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms these horrific attacks against medical infrastructure and humanitarian aid workers,” White House national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement. “There is no excuse for these heinous actions.”
“The United States again joins our partners … in demanding the immediate cessation of these bombardments and calling on Russia to immediately deescalate violence and facilitate humanitarian aid and access for the Syrian people,” she said.
It was earlier reported that all hospitals in Syria’s besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo are out of service after days of heavy air strikes.
“This destruction of infrastructure essential to life leaves the besieged, resolute people, including all children and elderly men and women, without any health facilities offering life-saving treatment … leaving them to die,” said Aleppo’s health directorate in a statement sent to Reuters by an opposition official.
Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria, said a U.N.-led group of aid agencies based over the border in Turkey “confirmed today that all hospitals in eastern Aleppo are out of service.”
Aleppo, for years split between a rebel-held east and government-held western sector, has become the fiercest front. During the summer, pro-regime forces managed to besiege the districts held by insurgents which are home to about 270,000 people, according to the United Nations.
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