At least five civilians were killed in an artillery attack in northwest Syria today. According to the United Kingdom-based observatory for human rights, units of the Syrian government fired artillery shells at the city of Atareb in the province of Aleppo. The bullets hit in the courtyard and at the entrance of the Atareb hospital, said the head of the observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.
It was a violation of a ceasefire agreement that has been in force in this region for a year.
Child among those killed
Rahman said those killed included a child and a hospital worker. In addition, eleven people were injured. Hospitals have been attacked repeatedly in the past. As a result, the medical facilities were moved to grottos or underground hospitals. According to the UN, 70 percent of doctors and medical staff have fled the region in recent years.
Today, according to the Human Rights Observatory, Kurdish and Syrian units fought fierce battles in northern Syria. The Observatory obtains its information from a network of informants on the spot.
The information provided by the activist organization can often hardly be verified independently. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, 388,000 people have been killed.
