Twenty-seven dead in a Syria bombing

Nick Stines
News Editor

      In an airstrike on a pediatric hospital, Al Quds, in Syria, twenty-seven people were killed including children. In Aleppo, Syria, there has been a lot of fighting going on, and at least 148 civilians have been killed just in the last six days. UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said “In the last forty-eight hours, we have had an average of one Syrian killed every twenty-five minutes, one Syrian wounded every thirteen minutes.”
      Since it is either unknown to the public or has not been released, people do not know who was responsible for the bombing. “This devastating attack has destroyed a vital hospital in Aleppo, and the main referral center for pediatric care in the area. Where is the outrage among those with the power and obligation to stop this carnage,” said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Head of Commission Muskilda Zancada. Médecins Sans Frontières is a French translation for Doctors Without Borders, a network of doctors who are willing to travel across borders for citizens in dire need of medical attention. MSF has been donating medical supplies to the Al Quds facility since 2012. “We condemn the destruction of the Al Quds hospital in #Aleppo, depriving people of essential healthcare. Hospitals are #notatarget, #Syria,” MSF International (@MSF) tweeted in outrage and protest.

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      In October of last year, an American gunship mistook an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, for a Taliban compound and bombarded it for nearly thirty minutes; the bombing killed forty-two people. In 2014, medical facilities in war zones in Ukraine, Colombia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Iraq were all attacked. Conditions and risks in medical facilities are so dangerous that doctors are not able to work or travel at all, which is detrimental to the health of innocent civilians who live in nations deprived of basic scientific and medical capabilities.
      It is alleged that either Russian or Syrian forces are responsible for the attack since they are the only two groups in the area with aircraft. The hospital bombings over the course of the past three years are clearly a humanitarian issue that the United Nations should shed more light on, and Russia will more than likely be investigated as they have been showing off their Airforce to the world by flying jets over Romania and the United States. In the U.S., the planes were flown around seventy feet away from a carrier ship with tourists. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to want to return to his glory days working for the KGB, the Soviet spy organization under Joseph Stalin’s rule, by trying to pick an arms race with the United States. However, Obama’s administration will not engage in Putin’s lost cause, and eyes will turn to Putin while the Syrian bombing is being investigated.