A hospital in north-west Syria backed by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been destroyed in an air strike.
The medical charity said eight members of staff were missing after
the attack in Maarat al-Numan, but it did not identify who was
responsible.
One monitoring group reported that at least nine people were killed and that Russian aircraft had targeted the town.
The strike comes days after Russia and other world powers agreed to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria.
More than 250,000 people have died in almost five years of war in Syria.
Eleven million others have fled their homes as forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each
other, as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State (IS).
'DELIBERATE ATTACK'
MSF said four rockets hit the hospital in Maarat al-Numan, a
rebel-held town about 30km (20 miles) south of the city of Idlib, within
minutes of each other on Monday morning.
Eight members of staff at the hospital, which had 30 beds, were missing, it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which
relies on a network of sources on the ground, said nine people were
killed, including a child. The raid also left dozens of others wounded,
it added.
"This is a deliberate attack against a health establishment,"
Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF's head of mission in Syria, said in a
statement quoted by the Reuters news agency.
"The destruction of this hospital deprives about 40,000 people of healthcare in this conflict zone."
On 5 February, three people were killed and six wounded when an
MSF-supported hospital in the southern province of Deraa was hit in an
air strike.
The attack on Tafas field hospital, about 12km (7 miles) from the
Jordanian border, caused partial damage to the hospital building.
MSF, which operates medical facilities inside Syria and supports
directly more than 150 others, said last week that such incidents were
further depleting Syria's already exhausted healthcare system and
preventing more people from accessing desperately needed medical care.
Since the start of this year alone, 14 health facilities in Syria
have been hit, which MSF said confirmed that hospitals and clinics were
no longer places where patients could recover in safety.
MSF also reiterated that the repeated attacks on medical facilities
in the ongoing conflict constituted a flagrant violation of
international laws.
