Syrian media says more than 100 people injured in toxic gas attack by anti-Assad rebels – Syria

Insurgents have injured more than 100 people during an alleged poison gas attack in Aleppo, Syria, which a health official described as the first attack of this type committed in the city.

The shells caused breathing difficulties for dozens of people Saturday night in Aleppo, while the government killed nine people in an Idlib village, a surveillance group said.

The state-run SANA news agency reported Sunday that 107 people were injured in Aleppo after militants hit three districts with projectiles containing sulphurous gas.

It is the heaviest casualty in Aleppo since government forces and their allies took over the city from rebels nearly two years ago.

Rebel leaders and opposition figures have discredited the government's reports, denying that they launched gas in Aleppo and accusing Damascus of trying to undermine the ceasefire and efforts to revive political discussions.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the chemical attack had been launched from an area of ​​the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by Nusra front-line militants and that she was considering talking to Turkey from this incident, because Ankara was the guarantor of the way in which the armed opposition there was a ceasefire.

"According to our preliminary information, confirmed in particular by symptoms of poisoning among the victims, the shells used to bomb the residential areas of Aleppo were filled with chlorine," said Russian Major-General Igor Konashenkov in his report. communicated.

Earlier Saturday, the government bombed at least seven civilians in the bombing of a rebel-controlled neighborhood in the neighboring province of Idlib.

In Aleppo, local governor Hussein Diab visited the wounded at the hospital. He told state television that 41 people had been admitted and accused the rebels of using poison gas in the missiles launched against them in the Aleppo neighborhood.

Health official Haj Taha later said the number of wounded was 50, adding that the symptoms suggest that the gas used was chlorine. Additional tests are needed, he said.

The projectiles landed in the neighborhood of al-Khalidiya and the wind caused a spread of gas, said Aleppo police chief, Essam al-Shali, on state television. . State television later said the gas had affected two other areas of the city. There are no deaths, said Al-Shali. One patient said that a foul odor had invaded the air after launching the projectiles.

"There are often missiles on the city but it's the first time we smell such a smell," said the patient without giving his name. State television eventually said that government troops had fired back, hitting the source of the attack. This has not been developed.

A ceasefire in Aleppo and Idlib has been frayed in recent days. Aleppo has been the target of rebel attacks in recent weeks. Missiles fell inside the city. The government responded with counterattacks against rebel-held areas in the Aleppo campaign.

Earlier Saturday, relief operations and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, based in Britain, announced that government shells had landed in Jarjanaz, a rebel-held city in the province. of Idlib, hitting students while they were leaving their school. The bombings killed eight people, including six children, according to the Civil Defense team in the area controlled by the opposition.

Opposition fighters have neither chemical weapons nor the means to use them, said rebel commander Abdel-Salam Abdel-Razek. On Twitter, he accused the government of organizing the attack against the rebels. Rebels spokesman Musafa Sejari said the government was seeking to undermine the ceasefire agreement.

In the absence of independent monitors, it is difficult to corroborate the gas attacks. But both sides of the conflict have accused themselves throughout the war of using poison gas.

A joint team of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accused the Syrian government of using chlorine gas during at least two attacks in 2014 and 2015, and the neurotoxic sarin during an attack in April 2017 in the city of Khan Sheikhoun. who killed about 100 people. The United States has launched a series of strikes on Syrian government sites in retaliation for Khan Sheikhoun's attack.

The UN-OPCW team also accused the extremist group "Islamic State" of using mustard gas twice in 2015 and 2016. The government accused the rebels of using gas during Khan's attack. al-Assal in 2013, a village south-west of Aleppo, killing 25 people. .