(From AP)
Russia on Tuesday rebuffed claims that its warplanes struck a hospital in northern Syria in airstrikes the previous day that killed at least nine people as Syrian government forces and a predominantly Kurdish coalition are fighting against rival groups in the country’s north.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the hospital report was another case in which those who make such accusations against Russia are unable to back up their claims. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said Russian warplanes targeted the hospital in Idlib province on Monday, destroying it and killing nine people. France said that such attacks “could constitute war crimes.”
Peskov, in a conference call with journalists, referred the parties making the accusations to the “primary source” and said they should rely on official announcements from the Syrian government.
“For us, in this situation, the primary source is the official announcement from the Syrian government,” he said.
When pressed, he told journalists that the Syrian government had made a string of announcements on who could have been behind the bombing. He also noted that Syria’s ambassador to Russia said the hospital was destroyed by the Americans.
“Reconnaissance data shows that the planes carrying out the strikes on these civilian facilities took to the skies from the US base in Turkey’s Incirlik where US-led coalition and Turkish airplanes are based,” Senator Igor Morozov told RIA Novosti. Read More