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BEIRUT (Reuters) – More than 100 people were injured Saturday in Aleppo, Syria, as part of an alleged poison gas attack, which the government and its ally, Russia, blamed on insurgents.
A health official in Aleppo said the victims were suffering from breathing difficulties, eye inflammation and other symptoms suggesting the use of chlorine gas. Rebel leaders denied these accusations and claimed that their forces did not possess chemical weapons.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced Sunday that its fighter jets had bombed militants in the stronghold of Idlib insurgents, accused of firing toxic gases in Aleppo.
Major General Igor Konashenkov said that Moscow had sent a preliminary warning to Ankara, which supports some rebel factions and contributed to the conclusion of a ceasefire in Idlib.
A surveillance group said Sunday that air strikes struck rebel territory in northwestern Syria for the first time since Russia and Turkey agreed on a buffer in September.
In the city of Aleppo, which the government controls, the shells have spread a strong smell and caused respiratory problems, also said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
The state-run SANA news agency reported Sunday that 107 people had been injured, including children, after militants hit three districts with the help of projectiles containing sweltering gases.
It is the heaviest casualty in Aleppo since government forces and their allies took over the city from rebels nearly two years ago.
"We can not know the types of gas, but we suspected chlorine and treated patients on that basis because of the symptoms," Zaher Batal, president of the Aleppo Medical Association, told Reuters.
Hospitals released many people during the night. Batal said it was the first gas attack against civilians in the city since the outbreak of the conflict more than seven years ago.
OXYGEN STRETCHERS AND MASKS
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Russian counterpart agreed on Sunday that "recent provocations" were aimed at undermining the Idlib deal, the ministry said.
"There was an exchange of views that … they could continue and that we had to be ready for them," the ministry said in a statement.
No one has claimed the Aleppo attack so far.
"The explosives (shells) contain poisonous gases that caused the choking of civilians," city police chief Issam al-Shilli told the official media.
Images and images from SANA showed medical workers carrying patients on stretchers and helping them wear an oxygen mask.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry has urged the US Security Council to condemn and punish this attack.
Abdel-Salam Abdel-Razak, a leader of the insurgent faction Nour al-Din al-Zinki, said the rebels either did not have chemical weapons or did not have the capacity to produce them.
Abu Omar, a spokesman for Failaq al-Sham, accused Damascus of trying to create a "malicious charade" as a pretext for attacking rebel cities.
The Observatory, based in the UK, said the government had bombed earlier Saturday two women and seven children in an Idlib village.
The September agreement between Russia and Turkey on a demilitarized zone prevented an army offensive against the Idlib region, particularly in neighboring parts of the provinces. Aleppo and Hama.
Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist alliance led by fighters formerly linked to Al Qaeda, is the dominant force among a range of factions that dominate Idlib.
A previous investigation between the UN and the OPCW revealed that the Syrian government had used the sarin nerve agent in 2017 and had also used chlorine repeatedly. He also criticized the Islamic State for using mustard gas.
Damascus has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the war.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that no rebel group had used chemical weapons during the war.
Reports from Ellen Francis to Beirut, from Ahmed Tolba to Cairo, from Kinda Makieh to Damascus, and from Andrew Osborn to Moscow; Edited by Richard Balmforth
