The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized western leaders after none appeared to condemn the shelling of a mobile Russian hospital by militants in Syria. Two Russian medics were killed after around a dozen of shells hit the facility in Aleppo.

“On December 5, a Russian military medic died as a mortar shell fired by militants directly hit the reception ward of a Russian mobile military hospital set up in Aleppo. Two medical specialists were also severely injured and one of them later died,” the ministry said.

“However, no words of condemnation can be heard from western capitals,” it added, criticizing western governments for their “politicized approach” to the assessment of the situation in Syria.

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“We call on our partners to abandon the politicized approach and finally join the counter-terrorist efforts in Syria as well as the search for a political solution to the Syrian crisis” instead of waging a smear campaign in the media, the ministry said in its statement.

It then went on to criticize Paris and London, saying they are waging a “propaganda campaign” – in particular over the delivery of humanitarian aid.

“Our ‘concerned’ French and British colleagues cannot but know that such aid is already rendered to the Aleppo residents … by the Russian side through the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria and the Russian Emergencies Ministry,” the foreign ministry said.

It also slammed western governments for their repeated calls to stop the government operation in Eastern Aleppo, which “increasingly resembles the last desperate attempt to shield and save the terrorists and extremists supervised by [the West], who are on the losing side in the Aleppo [battle].”

The ministry said again that armed groups that the West attempts to support “use civilians as human shields, [and] shell and mine civilian infrastructure and humanitarian corridors.”

About 11 shells landed on the territory of the Russian hospital leading to its total destruction, Vladimir Savchenko, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria told journalists earlier on Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry urged for the international community to condemn the attack and said that the incident would be investigated and all responsible would be held to account.

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The ministry also said that it attributes blame for the hospital shelling to “terrorists and their patrons in the US, the UK and France.”

“It is beyond doubt that the shelling was conducted by the ‘opposition’ militants. Moscow understands who gave the Syrian militants the coordinates of the Russian hospital right at the moment when it started working,” the Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

The US State Department, which is usually quick to comment on reports of attacks on medical facilities in Syria, found it difficult to confirm and therefore specifically condemn the shelling of the Russian hospital.

“I’ve seen the reports we’ve not been able to confirm; it’s difficult to do obviously, given the fighting and given our lack of access to what’s happening on the ground,” spokesperson Mark Toner told RT’s Gayane Chichakyan. “But to answer your question – of course we condemn any attack on a hospital or healthcare facility.”

RT has requested comment on the shelling of the Russian hospital from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Amnesty International.

In response to a request from RT, Amnesty International said it is trying to check whether it is “able to comment on this.”

“But usually if we have not documented and been able to verify details for ourselves it can be tricky for us to provide a comment on specific attacks,” the emailed response reads.

“Repeated attacks on healthcare and other civilian infrastructure throughout Aleppo” indicated that “all sides to the conflict in Syria are failing in their duties to respect and protect healthcare workers, patients and hospitals, and to distinguish between them and military objectives,” the Red Cross told RT in a comment following the shelling of the hospital.

“Healthcare infrastructure, medical personnel and the sick and wounded are protected under international humanitarian law (IHL). They must not be attacked,” the Red Cross stressed, adding that “when hospitals come under fire, countless numbers of people are deprived of life-saving healthcare.”</s>George Ourfalian, AFP | A Russian soldier inspects the damage at a field hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo that was reportedly destroyed by rebel shelling on December 5, 2016

A Russian army medic was killed Monday and two others seriously injured in rebel shelling of a field hospital in Syria's Aleppo, Russia's defence ministry said, blaming Western nations who support rebel fighters.

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"As a result of a shell directly hitting the reception area of the hospital, one Russian female military medic was killed," Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

"Two medical workers were heavily wounded. Local residents who had come to visit the doctors were also injured."

A photographer who supplies AFP with photos described seeing burned tents and charred boxes of medical supplies at the scene.

Konashenkov said the attack had "undoubtedly been carried out by 'opposition' fighters" and laid the blame at the door of Western nations – including the US, Britain and France – that have backed those fighting its ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

"We understand who gave the fighters the exact information and coordinates of the reception area of the Russian hospital as it was starting its work," Konashenkov added.

"Our servicemen's blood is on the hands of those who ordered this murder."

Syrian rebels are battling forces loyal to Assad after sweeping advances saw the government seize back large chunks of territory in eastern Aleppo.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that President Vladimir Putin had ordered that field hospitals be sent to war-ravaged Aleppo.

Russia has been flying air raids in Syria since September 2015, intervening at the request of Assad, Moscow's longtime ally.

Russia says it has halted air strikes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo since October 18 following international condemnation over its ferocious bombardment of the city.

The deadly war in Syria has killed more than 300,000 people since it started in March 2011 with a wave of anti-government protests.

(AFP)</s>A Russian mobile hospital was hit by shelling on Monday, just days after it was set up to provide assistance to civilians in Aleppo.

Two Russian medics were killed and another seriously injured after around a dozen of shells hit the facility. Civilians attending appointments were also wounded in the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry ministry said that it attributes blame for the hospital shelling to “terrorists and their patrons in the US, the UK and France.”

The Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov accused the United States of both providing the rebels with the coordinates of the Russian hospital as well as providing the weapons with which it was hit:

“The blood of our soldiers is on the hands of their hirer of the murder. These people who created, supported and armed these beasts in human form, called them ‘opposition’ to justify themselves towards their own conscience and voters.”

“Yes, the blood of our soldiers is on your, ladies and gentlemen, the patrons of terrorists from the United States, Britain, France and other countries and sympathizers formations, hands.”

And here is footage from directly after the attack. Looks pretty brutal…

Syria recriminations — as well as suspicious incidents — continue. So far we’ve seen US accusing Russia of systematically bombing hospitals and taking out an aid convoy, Russia accusing the US of intentionally massacring ninety Syrian soldiers fighting ISIS, Turkey accusing Syria of bombing Turkish troops, Russia accusing Turkey of ambushing its plane over Syria, and US accusing Syria of using chemical weapons against its civilians — all of which the accused side denies.

So what is the truth of this one? Honestly from here we can’t know. It could be that al-Nusra and associated jihadis got in a lucky shot and killed themselves some Russians. It could even be that the Russian military suspects that but finds it convenient to blame the Americans and turn on some information warfare heat on the other side for a change.

The more disturbing possibility is that Russians are right and telling the truth. Certainly the part about United States providing the artillery with which the deed was done is plausible, even highly probable.

You may recall that after the failure of the first ceasefire agreement in February the US was openly readying a “Plan B” to arm “moderate rebels fighting the Russia-backed regime” with “more-powerful weapons”. Specifically the talk was of dispatching anti-aircraft cannons and powerful ranged artillery.

In fact deliveries of powerful rocket artillery units were later confirmed on multiple occasions by the rebels and have been observed in action before against west Aleppo.

It is highly likely that Russian medical personnel were slain by weapons whose transfer was sanctioned by the United States. As to whether the US provided the coordinates as the Russians claim to believe we can’t know but we can point out this all looks very familiar.

You will recall that US struck Syrian troops in Deir ez-Zor in September allegedly in a case of mistaken identity — yet the attack certainly proved useful to the Department of Defense in burying the Kerry-Lavrov deal which had been signed just days before and which Ash Carter and most of the military were deeply hostile to.

Also of half a dozen amateur map makers tracking the lines of control on the internet not one of them had the Syrian positions which were targeted (and had been static for months) as held by ISIS — somehow the intelligence of the US military was poorer than that of internet amateurs?

With the Syrian army even without Russian air cover being on the cusp of victory in Aleppo, and civilians there contrary to expectations of the western media being jubilant about it too the times are again very critical, even desperate for the would-be regime changers — and right “on schedule” another suspicious incident occurs.

This was certainly a provocation by the rebels to try to provoke Russians into overreacting and providing the western press with plausible atrocity stories which have so far been missing from the story of the fall of eastern Aleppo — question is only how much (and it almost certainly is how much rather than if) did the US do to contribute?
Two Russian army medics are killed after around a dozen shells hit a mobile hospital in Aleppo.