MSF Deeply Regrets Deaths of Russian Medical Staff in Aleppo Hospital Attack

The Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) organization deeply regrets the deaths of Russian medical staff in an attack on a Russian mobile hospital in Aleppo, and reiterates that it is a violation of the rules of war, MSF Director of Operations for Brussels operational center Brice de le Vingne told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that militants of the so-called Syrian opposition attacked a Russian mobile military hospital in Aleppo, killing two Russian military medics and wounding one. Local residents also sustained wounds.

"We deeply regret the loss of health staff while carrying out their medical work. Such killings are devastating for the families, but also have an impact on the medical care available to communities at their time of greatest need … It is clear that shelling medics and their patients is completely unacceptable, and, whether done in a targeted or an indiscriminate attack, is a violation of the rules of war," de le Vingne said.

De le Vingne stressed that the MSF condemns all attacks on civilians and breaches of the international humanitarian law perpetrated by all warring parties in Syria.

Following the attack, Russian authorities said that Syrian rebels "had exact coordinates" of the hospital that means that those parties who support militants were also responsible for the deaths of Russian doctors. However, the US State Department denied giving coordinates of the Russian mobile hospital to the Syrian opposition.