Syria Conflict and Chemical Attack that Killed over 58 People in Rebel-Held Town
Updated | A suspected chlorine gas attack on a rebel-held town in Syria killed at least 58 people in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, according to a monitoring group.
The
attack took place in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib
province. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)
confirmed to Newsweek that at least nine children died in the attack,
according to doctors it spoke with on the ground.
The
monitor, which has an extensive network of opposition sources on the
ground in Syria, provided an earlier death toll of 35, before increasing
it to 58. The death toll may continue to rise.
“The
doctors working in that area told me they saw the same description for
the body that happens with a chlorine attack,” Rami Abdulrahman, chief
of SOHR, told Newsweek by phone.
The
doctors reportedly described victims choking, some with foam leaving
their mouths—symptoms that signaled chemical warfare. SOHR said dozens
suffered respiratory problems.
It
remains unclear who was responsible for the attack but the Syrian
opposition currently participating in Geneva peace talks accused the
regime of President Bashar al-Assad of carrying it out, calling for a
U.N. investigation.
“The
National Coalition demands the Security Council convene an emergency
session..., open an immediate investigation and take the necessary
measures to ensure the officials, perpetrators and supporters are held
accountable,” the body said in a statement on Tuesday, AFP news agency
reported.
The U.N. has accused the Syrian regime
of at least three previous chemical attacks—all chlorine gas—on Syrian
populations in rebel-held areas since the conflict began in March 2011,
sparked by a popular revolt against Assad’s rule.
In December, Britain and France called for further U.N. sanctions
against the Syrian regime in response to the allegations of chemical
warfare. The government in Damascus continues to deny allegations that
it has used chemical weapons against civilians.
“We
have new massacres in Syria, still the international community is
waiting, waiting for what, we do not know. Those who are killing
civilian people—it doesn’t matter if his name is ISIS, the regime,
whoever—is a criminal,” Abdulrahman says.
Activists shared images and footage
on social media that appeared to show at least one suspected victim
with foam coming out of his mouth, while others showed rescue volunteers
hosing down children who could have been affected by the attack. The
images were not immediately verifiable.
In
September 2013, the U.N., U.S. and Russia struck a deal with the Syrian
regime to disarm itself of any chemical weapons and hand over its
entire stockpile. Damascus eventually handed over more than 1,000 tons
of chemical material that could be used in weapons.
The
agreement led to Syria joining the Chemical Weapons Convention in the
aftermath of the regime’s infamous sarin gas attack on the rebel-held
Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013. The worst attack in the
six-year-long civil war, the chemical assault on Ghouta attack killed
1,429 people, including at least 426 children, according to U.S.
government estimates.
Both
the U.S. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,
an international watchdog, declared by January 2015 that all of Syria’s
chemical weapons stockpile had been destroyed but later findings by a
chemical weapons watchdog suggest the regime continues to produce chemical weapons.
This story has been updated to reflect an increase in the death toll.
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