MOSCOW (Reuters) — The Kremlin strongly rejected on Tuesday accusations by Turkey that Russia committed a war crime in Syria after missile attacks killed scores of people a day earlier, hitting several medical facilities and schools.
"We categorically do not accept such statements, the more so as every time those making these statements are unable to prove their unfounded accusations in any way," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call.
On Monday close to 50 civilians were killed and many more wounded in the bombings, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told Reutersthat Ban had described the attacks as “blatant violations of international laws.”
Reuters reported on Monday that Turkey's foreign ministry had accused Russia of carrying out an "obvious war crime."
At least 14 people were killed in the town of Azaz after missiles struck a school sheltering families.
In a sperate incident missiles also struck a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.
"There were at least seven deaths among the personnel and the patients, and at least eight MSF personnel have disappeared, and we don't know if they are alive," Mego Terzian, president of MSF France, told Reuters.
The attack came just one day after US President Barack Obama called Putin and requested he call a halt to bombing moderate opposition targets in Syria.
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