Shelling of the rebel-held city of Afrin in northern Syria killed at least 18 people on Saturday, many of them when a hospital was hit, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a doctor, three hospital staff, two women and two children died at Al-Shifaa hospital in the city which is held by Turkish-backed rebels.
A rebel commander also died at the hospital, the Observatory said, adding that 23 people were injured.
An AFP correspondent shot footage of white-helmeted aid workers in the hospital courtyard strewn with bodies.
"The shelling targeted several areas of the town and hit the hospital", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP.
"Most of the victims died in shelling on the hospital," the monitoring group said in a statement, warning the casualty toll could rise further with some of the wounded in a critical condition.
The artillery fire originated from northern Aleppo province "where militia faithful to Iran and the (Syrian) regime are deployed, near the zones run by Kurdish forces", the Britain-based group said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement denying any involvement in the shelling.
The region, like all areas held by pro-Turkish rebels, regularly witnesses targeted killings, bombings and shootings.
Syrian regime shelling on the opposition-held Idlib enclave killed 12 people Thursday, one of the deadliest violations of a 15-month-old ceasefire, the war monitor said.
Turkey’s military backed by Syrian opposition forces seized Afrin, a mainly Kurdish district, from the YPG in March 2018 in a major offensive.
Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil and has mounted military operations in northern Syria to push it back from the border.
Ankara now retains a large military presence in the area deploying thousands of troops in the last rebel enclave.
The Syrian conflict has claimed 494,438 lives and has displaced 13,2 million people since it erupted in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests. With Reuters
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