Syria war: Aleppo pushed even closer to the brink as air strikes hit two major hospitals

Many departments in two hospitals unusable as the besieged area’s last 30 doctors struggle to cope with casualties from Russian-backed Syrian bombing offensive

Syrians await to receive treatment at a make-shift hospital following air strikes on rebel-held eastern areas of Aleppo on September 24, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

Two hospitals in besieged east Aleppo have been hit by Russian and Syrian air strikes, knocking them out of commission and leaving hundreds of patients at risk, doctors on the ground report.

Adham Sahloul, an advocacy officer based for the Syrian American Medical Society based in Gaziantep, said that two patients died and three staff wounded in the 4am and 10am strikes. He described them as deliberate, as the Syrian government is aware of their locations.

The hospitals are called M10 and M2 by Aleppo’s medics to obscure destinations in case radio communication is intercepted. M10’s intensive care unit is out of service, and water storage units and generators were damaged, head of the hospital Mohammed Abu Rajab said. Patients from both hospitals were evacuated and sent to east Aleppo's six remaining medical facilities.

Patients who arrived at M2 in another airstrike on Wednesday afternoon could not be cared for there and were triaged and sent to M1, a nurse at the hospital said.

Doctors have already reported having to carry out amputations rather than save limbs to save precious time and move on to the next patient in need of life-saving care, Dr Mounir Hakimi of Syrian medical charity UOSSM told The Independent on Tuesday.

There are now just three functioning emergency units and 29 doctors caring for the approximately 250,000 civilians trapped in east Aleppo. Supply lines to rebel neighbourhoods were sealed in July, meaning that antibiotics, anesthetics and other drugs are running out.

Bombs have rained down on rebel-held neighbourhoods since President Bashar al-Assad announced a campaign last Thursday to retake the city after a ceasefire broke down. The assault has included white phosphorous munitions, ground-penetrating bombs that destroy basement shelters, cluster munitions and napalm in what has been described as the bloodiest week in the six-year-long Syrian civil war.

Two out of four emergency response centres were destroyed last week in direct hits, as well as two ambulances.

A White Helmets or civil service defence rescue worker told The Independent on Tuesday that he estimated almost 500 people have been killed in the relentless air assault and around 2,000 people are in need of urgent medical attention.

UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least six people had died in Wednesday’s strikes.

Aid agencies and many international organisations have condemned the Syrian military’s bloody operation. The UK and French ambassadors to the United Nations accused Russia and Syria of war crimes for targeting civilian infrastructure.

Pleas from east Aleppo’s residents and the international community for the assault to stop have fallen on deaf ears, as Syrian ground troops have begun making gains in the historic Old Quarter in the city centre in the last 24 hours.

Regaining control of Aleppo would be a major victory for Assad, wiping out the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The UN’s Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, warned that such an operation would be a “slow, grinding, street by street fight, over the course of months if not years.”