Air raids strike 4 hospitals in Syria's Aleppo: report

A Turkey-based Syrian medical organization said Sunday that four hospitals were hit by airstrikes in Syria's northern province of Aleppo.

In a statement, the Syrian Independent Doctor's Association (IDA) said four hospitals in addition to a central blood bank run by them, were all struck in one day, becoming out of service.

It said the last Children's Hospital in Aleppo was hit twice in less than 12 hours.

It added that the strikes killed a two-day old infant.

The IDA, which operates in rebel-held areas, said it's a Syrian NGO based in Gaziantep operating cross-border humanitarian work throughout Aleppo province.

"We work in the northern Aleppo border area and in Aleppo city, running hospitals and providing community health medical services," it said.

It stopped short of identifying the party behind the airstrikes, whether Syrian, Russian, or warplanes by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition.

Violence in Aleppo has intensified recently with battles raging on several fronts coupled with relentless shelling by all warring parties.

On Friday, at least eight people were killed and 30 others wounded in a public park in a rebel mortar attack on Aleppo, a well-informed source told Xinhua.

Three women were among those killed in the attack, the latest in an endless cycle of mortar shelling by rebels against government-controlled areas in Aleppo, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The shelling came a day after rebels in Aleppo detonated a bomb in a tunnel under a police station, killing an undisclosed number of government officers.

The blast destroyed parts of the building of the police station in the al-Hal area, said Sham FM radio.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, has recently witnessed intensified fighting between an array of jihadist groups and the Syrian army.

Last Sunday, government troops fully severed the last supply route connecting rebel-held areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo and those areas inside the eastern part of the city.

Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, has been a focal point of clashes between the Syrian army and the rebels.

In the summer of 2012, thousands of armed militants stormed residential districts of Aleppo from its countryside, striking the economic nerves of the Syrian government, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting the rebels for undeclared interests in Aleppo.

The rebels captured several districts in east Aleppo and tried repeatedly to expand their presence to government-controlled areas in the west.

The rebels laid siege to western Aleppo districts after cutting the international road to Aleppo in 2014, a siege broken later by the Syrian army, with the help of Hezbollah. Endit