The neutral aid group says recent incidents in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen indicate a wider trend toward targeting health care workers. — File Photo

GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is seeing an alarming rise in attacks on medics in war zones.

The neutral aid group says recent incidents in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen indicate a wider trend toward targeting health care workers.

ICRC director-general Yves Daccord says there is also a sense that attacks on medics are prompting less outrage than they previously would have.

An ICRC medical adviser, Robin Coupland, told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that the knock-on effects of attacks on health workers are immense.

Coupland says such attacks contributed to the exodus of half Iraq's doctors between 2003 and 2008, leaving entire communities without medical care.

Targeting medics or hospitals is forbidden under the rules of war.