Russia denies bombing Syria national hospital

The Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011, has spiralled into a multi-sided civil war.


The death toll has risen to more than 250,000 people while half the country's population have been forced from their homes, according to UN estimates.

"Russian planes did not carry out any combat missions, to say nothing of any air strikes, in the province of Idlib," Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

The dead included seven children.

Ten overnight strikes on Monday in Idlib hit areas around the National Hospital and other parts of the city centre, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The air strikes are the most intensive on Idlib since the beginning of the truce," Rahman told the AFP news agency. "Even though Idlib is not covered by the truce, it had been relatively calm with only intermittent raids."


The Russian Defence Ministry had said the pause was to allow groups who signed up for a US and Russian backed cessation of hostilities a chance to cut their links with the al-Nusra Front, a powerful Syrian group with ties to al-Qaeda.

Source:Al Jazeera