Airstrikes hit hospitals in Syria as insurgents fight government forces

Hospitals and neighbourhoods in the rebel-held northern Syrian region of Idlib were pummelled by a wave of airstrikes as Islamist insurgents battled forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad after their assault on Aleppo.

- Ruth Michaelson

White Helmets civil defence forces based in Idlib, from where the insurgents launched their attack, said Russian airstrikes had hit five health-care facilities, including a maternity hospital. At least 18 people were killed and 35 injured, they said, but they feared the numbers could rise.

Russia, along with Iran, backs Assad and entered the Syrian civil war nearly a decade ago in support of his regime.

Video from Idlib showed plumes of smoke rising over the city, streets covered in ash and cars on fire in a residential area. In a photo shared by the White Helmets, a pile of rubble and cement was visible in a crater in a hospital courtyard.

"No one was prepared for bombardments on this scale over such a large area," said Ismail Alabdullah, of the White Helmets. "Just now there was an attack on the city hospital in Idlib. Two people died as it caused the oxygen supply to the hospital to break down," he said.

Earlier yesterday, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias crossed into eastern Syria in an attempt to shore up the struggling forces loyal to Damascus, battling an insurgency that has swept much of the country's north-west as Islamist militants seized control of Aleppo.

The defence ministry in Damascus said it had deployed military reinforcements to Hama - where fierce fighting was reported to the city's north- and other flashpoints as they attempted to mount a counterattack.