Medical relief group: Syria hospitals need 'fortification'

GENEVA – A medical relief advocacy groups says over 100 hospitals in Syria were hit by Syrian or Russian airstrikes last year, urging the "fortification" of medical facilities such as by adding reinforced concrete or blast-resistant windows.

In a 90-page report released Saturday, the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, or UOSSM, also decries an "alarming scarcity" of specialized care and supplies.

The report says all 107 hospitals surveyed in December in seven regions were hit at least once by "direct or indirect airstrikes" last year — some as many as 25 times.

Three-quarters of hospitals surveyed were "makeshift hospitals," in buildings not initially designed to provide medical care, because real hospitals were either destroyed or made inoperable.

UOSSM says all parties knew those sites were makeshift hospitals.