A double-tap[1] barrel bombing on Saturday 28 November on a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-supported hospital in a besieged zone in northern Homs governorate, Syria, has caused seven deaths, the partial destruction of the hospital and an influx of 47 wounded patients needing to be transferred to nearby field hospitals, some of whom died en route.
At around 9:40am local time on 28 November, a barrel bomb was dropped from a helicopter on a populated area of Al Zafarana town, to the north east of Homs city in Syria, killing a man and a young girl, and wounding 16 people. These patients were admitted to the Al Zafarana hospital in the mass casualty influx.
Soon after, another barrel bomb landed next to the hospital, causing damage to the kidney dialysis unit. Then 40 minutes later, at around 10:30am local time, when the wounded from the first bomb were being treated in the hospital, two further barrel bombs were dropped right by the front entrance, killing one bystander, and wounding 31 of the patients under treatment and medical staff, including two paramedics working for the Syrian Civil Defense ambulance service, one of whom sustained critically serious head injuries. The second blast also caused partial destruction of the hospital.
The most critically wounded patients were transferred to three nearby hospitals. The 16 from the initial influx were immediately sent to one hospital. A second facility received 21 injured and four who arrived dead, having died on the journey, and the third facility received ten injured and one dead-on-arrival.
In total these bombings have killed seven and wounded 47 people. Half of the wounded – 23 out of 47 people - were children under 15 years old and women.