Waves of airstrikes in Syria’s Aleppo kills at least 61

At least 27 people, including children, were killed at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria overnight, activists said Thursday, in what Secretary of State John Kerry called a "deliberate [air]strike" by government forces on a "known medical facility." The incident was part of a wave of night-time airstrikes by Syrian warplanes in embattled Aleppo that killed at least 61 people overall. An official from the Syrian opposition claimed Russia may have also participated in the strikes.  Some of the overnight strikes hit the well-known al-Quds field hospital in the Sukkari district in Aleppo, according to Doctors Without Borders, opposition activists and rescue workers. They said 14 doctors and patients were among the dead.
A separate blitz in Aleppo reportedly killed 20, raising the 24-hour death toll in the key city to at least 61. Senior opposition official Anas al-Abdeh, the head of the Syrian National Council, claimed Syria's ally Russia may have taken part in the strikes as well. Russian defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied his country flew any jets near Aleppo over the past several days. The chief Syrian opposition negotiator Mohammed Alloush told The Associated Press the latest violence showed how negotiations, such as the February talks that led to a short-lived cease fire, were not realistic.
"Whoever carries out these massacres needs a war tribunal and a court of justice to be tried for his crimes. He does not need a negotiating table," Alloush told the AP in a telephone interview. "Now, the environment is not conducive for any political action."
"Russia has an urgent responsibility to press the regime... to stop attacking civilians, medical facilities, and first responders, and to abide fully by the cessation of hostilities," Secretary of State John Kerry responded.