Save The Children Says Syrian Maternity Hospital Bombed

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian maternity hospital in a rebel-held area of Idlib province was extensively damaged on Friday after a direct hit, international charity Save the Children, which supports the hospital, said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria’s five-year-old conflict, said air strikes hit the hospital and also a civil defense building.

The number of casualties is not yet known, a spokesman for Save the Children said.

The hospital in Kafer Takhareem, the only maternity facility for about 70 miles (110 km), works with around 1,300 women and children a month and delivered some 340 babies last month, the spokesman said.

In another part of the northern Idlib countryside, air strikes on Friday killed at least five people and seriously injured more than 25, the Observatory said.