EMERGENCY

Rebel-Held Section of Aleppo Has No Functioning Hospitals

Last one destroyed in an airstrike.

The rebel-held section of Aleppo, Syria, no longer has a functioning hospital. The last remaining facility was destroyed in an airstrike Friday that is believed to have been carried out by Syrian government or Russian forces, Time magazine reports. The city has been at the center of the civil war that has plagued the country for more than five years. Eastern Aleppo has been a key stronghold for rebel forces. “I think the value of the hospital—it’s important medically but it’s more important psychologically. When people know there is a place where they can be treated and they feel safe somehow,” said Mohammad Yasser Tabbaa of the Syrian Expatriate Medical Association. “When they know they’re all out of service, they panic. I think that’s what the regime is trying to do.” An estimated 250,000 people remain in what was once Syria’s biggest city.