BEIRUT — Activists and a medical group said shells hit a hospital on Saturday in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed fighters, killing at least six people, including two medical staff.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the shelling, which came from areas where government troops and Kurdish-led fighters are deployed.
The Syrian American Medical Association, an aid group that assists health centers in opposition areas, said al-Shifaa Hospital in the town of Afrin was targeted by two missiles, also leading to multiple wounded.
At least four other medical staff were injured, including a seriously injured midwife, the aid group said. The polyclinic department and delivery room were completely destroyed, it added.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin in 2018 in a military operation that expelled local Kurdish fighters and displaced thousands of Kurdish residents. Ankara considers the Kurdish fighters who were in control of Afrin terrorists. Since then, there has been a series of attacks on Turkish targets in the area.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 16 people were killed in the attack, most of them civilians.
The discrepancy in the death toll could not be immediately reconciled.
