Ambulances under siege in Syria | BMJ Global Health

Ambulances under siege in Syria | BMJ Global Health





Good morning! Andrew Joseph here filling in for Megan.
You can reach me at andrew.joseph@statnews.com.

Ambulances used as a target of war in Syria

Attacks on hospitals and health workers have tragically become a strategy in some wars. Now, experts have quantified the violence against another arm of the health system: ambulances. Emergency medicine researchers reviewed the literature and attacks reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights for 2016 and 2017 and found that there were 204 attacks involving 243 ambulances, half of which were directly targeted. The Syrian regime was responsible for 60 percent of attacks, while the Russian armed forces accounted for 29 percent of them. The researchers, who published their findings in BMJ Global Health, noted that attacks on ambulances in Syria are likely underreported.