BEIRUT (AP) – Russia on Tuesday rebuffed claims that its warplanes struck a hospital in northern Syria in airstrikes the previous day that killed at least nine people as Syrian government forces and a predominantly Kurdish coalition are making against rival groups in the country’s north.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the hospital report was another case in which those who make such accusations against Russia are unable to back up their claims. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said Russian warplanes targeted the hospital in Idlib province on Monday, destroying it and killing nine people. France said that such attacks “could constitute war crimes.”
Peskov, in a conference call with journalists, referred the parties making the accusations to the “primary source” and said they should rely on official announcements from the Syrian government.
“For us, in this situation, the primary source is the official announcement from the Syrian government,” he said. When pressed, he told journalists that the Syrian government had made a string of announcement on who could have been behind the bombing. He also noted that Syria’s ambassador to Russia said the hospital was destroyed by the Americans.
The airstrikes came just days after Russia and other world powers agreed to bring about a pause in fighting that would allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the revival of Syrian peace talks. The projected truce agreed on Friday in Munich was to begin in a week, but there has been no sign it would happen.