Syria air strikes: Two-day old baby dies as four hospitals hit in Aleppo

The paediatric hospital in the Syrian city has been hit twice by strikes in 12 hours

Air strikes by Syrian government forces have hit four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in the city of Aleppo, killing a two-day-old baby.

The strikes took place over the space of 24 hours as part of an overnight raid in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood on Sunday.

The hospitals, which provide urgent medical care to more than 200,000 civilians, were out of action on Sunday.

A newborn boy was killed when his oxygen supply was cut off after the raid in the early hours of the morning, AFP reported.

Footage posted online by the Independent Doctors Association (IDA), a group that provides emergency medical care in the city, shows the aftermath of one of the attacks. In the film, a small baby is carried in a room filled with incubators. The camera shows that outside the children's hospital, the dust from the strike has not yet settled.

The IDA say their children’s hospital, the only paediatric facility in the rebel-controlled area, had been hit twice by strikes over a period of 12 hours.

The head nurse at the children's facility said: "The situation is so bad. The hospital is greatly damaged and this is not the first time."

The IDA are saying the strikes that repeatedly plague the area are causing a "major humanitarian disaster". The group allege goverment forces targeted the medical centres on purpose.

"The Syrian regime realises that killing a doctor means a huge defeat. It tries to eliminate and destroy medical services," Dr. Naser, a paediatrician with the group said in a statement.

The strikes occurred hours before President Bashar al-Assad’s government announced it was intent on finding a political solution to the war in Syria and was prepared to engage in peace talks.

"Syria ... is ready to continue the Syrian-Syrian dialogue without any preconditions ... and without foreign interference, with the support of the United Nations,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said, according to state news agency SANA.