Forces loyal to the Syrian government have conducted systematic attacks against hospitals and physicians in besieged eastern Aleppo, Syria, maiming and killing hundreds of children in the process.
Below are eight things to know about the war crimes on Syria's hospitals.
1. Hospitals and physicians have been routinely targeted in the course of the war in Syria. The U.N.'s commission of inquiry into the Syria crisis has long concluded health facilities are systematically attacked by pro-government forces, which consider hospitals in "enemy" territory legitimate military targets.
2. Physicians for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization, identified 382 attacks on hospitals in Syria since the war started. Russian forces carried out at least 16 of those attacks, according to its report.
3. The region's two largest hospitals known as M2 and M10, codenames used by local physicians to obscure the hospitals' locations, were hit between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sept. 28 by airstrikes, artillery shells and cluster bombs. The bombardment put both hospitals out of service. In a statement, UNICEF said at least 96 children were killed and 223 children were injured in airstrikes.
4. Officials within Aleppo reported evidence Russian forces are using bunker-buster bombs, a much more destructive and sophisticated form of weaponry. The bombs penetrate the earth's surface and explode deep underground to target and destroy bunkers. During the course of the war, civilian shelters, hospitals and medical centers have been relocated underground to avoid the government attacks.
5. The largest hospital in Aleppo, M10, was attacked again Oct. 1 with at least two barrel bombs, two cluster bombs and one rocket, according to the Syrian American Medical Society.
6. M10 was hit again Oct. 4 with bunker-buster bombs, killing at least seven people and trapping several more beneath the rubble. The seven killed included two medical staff and five maintenance workers attempting to repair the hospital after previous airstrikes. M10's emergency rooms and intensive care unit were located deep underground.
7. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said Oct. 3 the government army took over Aleppo's al-Kindi Hospital, perched on a strategic hill in northern Aleppo, and killed "many terrorists," according to CNN.
8. With M10 and M2 non-operational, only six viable hospitals remain in the region, according to the Syrian American Medical Society.
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