Chemical attack in Syria

At least 25 dead in Syrian 'chemical' attack as govt and rebels trade blame

Syrian rebels have used a rocket chemical warhead in Aleppo, killing 25 people and injuring 86, says Syria's Information Minister. The attack escalates the Syrian conflict and brings the violence to a new level, believe Russian diplomats

RT,

19 March, 2013

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The Syrian government's SANA news agency reported that terrorists fired a rocket containing chemical substances in the Khan al-Assal area of rural Aleppo and confirmed that at least 25 people, most of them civilians, were killed.

A photographer working for Reuters in Aleppo reported that the witnesses of the attack complain of a strong smell of chlorine near the epicenter of the attack. Reportedly, people had breathing problems and some of them died of suffocation.

"They said that people were suffocating in the streets and the air smelt strongly of chlorine,” the photographer said, stressing that most of the victims he saw while visiting the University of Aleppo hospital and the al-Rajaa hospital were women and children.

"People were dying in the streets and in their houses," he said by phone.

A statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website says that “According to information coming from Damascus, the armed opposition used chemical weapons early in the morning on March 19 in the province of Aleppo” .

“This is an extremely alarming and dangerous development of events in the Syrian crisis,” believe Russian diplomats.

The Foreign Ministry stressed it is “seriously concerned” about the fact that WMD has fallen into the hands of the armed militia.

“This aggravates the situation in Syria and brings unfolding confrontation in this country to a new level,” the ministry states.

The Obama administration announced it is looking carefully at the chemical warfare allegation coming from Syria, but instantly called into question the possible use of such weapons by opposition groups.

"We are looking carefully at the information as it comes in," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says the watchdog so far does not have independent confirmation of chemical weapons use in Syria.

“I don't think we know more than you do at the moment," maintained at a seminar in Vienna the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ahmet Uzumcu.

"Of course we have seen those reports and we are closely monitoring the situation," he said.

Syria’s Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi stated Turkey and Qatar bore "legal, moral and political responsibility" for the "dangerous escalation" in violence because of their support of rebel groups fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. He decried the incident as the interim government’s “first act.”

The Turkish government has immediately rejected Syria’s accusations of taking part in the alleged chemical attack in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.

"This is a baseless accusation. The Syrian government has accused Turkey in the past as well," an unnamed Turkish official told Reuters.

Syrian rebel commander Qassim Saadeddine immediately denied the accusations and claimed the Syrian regime had launched Scud missiles containing chemical agents on Khan al-Assa

Opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 26 people killed following the attack, saying that 16 died on the scene, while the other 10 died in hospital. A spokesperson for the organization said it was unclear how many civilians perished in the attack.

The British envoy to the UN told reporters on his way to the Security Council that the reports on chemical weapon attack in Syria “haven't yet been fully verified."

“But clearly if chemical weapons were used then that would be abhorrent and it would require a serious response from the international community," Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters.

Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said on Tuesday the country's armed forces would never use internationally banned chemical weapons.

“The Syrian army leadership has stressed this before and we say it again, if we had chemical weapons we would never use them due to moral, humanitarian and political reasons," Zoabi said at a media conference.

"Our armed forces absolutely could not use, not now, nor at any time, nor in the past, any weapon banned by international law,” he stressed.

The opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 26 people killed following the attack, saying that 16 died on the scene, while the other 10 died in hospital. A spokesperson for the organization said it was unclear how many civilians perished in the attackPhoo by Aleppo University Hospital

Fears that Syria’s chemical weapons could fall into militant hands have been a source of constant concern for the international community over the past few months. The US and the UN have repeatedly warned President Bashar Assad’s government against deploying its own chemical arms stockpile.

Damascus maintains that it would never use such weapons against its own people, but would consider their deployment if threatened by outside forces.

Reports that Syrian rebels had seized control of a number of chemical weapons depots in the Aleppo province emerged on Sunday.

"Opposition fighters gained control over weapons and ammunition stores in the village of Khan Toman in southern Aleppo province on Saturday after fierce fighting that went on for more than three days," an anonymous military source told AFP. Reports of the weapons seizure came after days of brutal clashes between opposition and government forcesPhoto by Aleppo University Hospital

The source said the rebels only managed to steal a few crates containing ammunition, as a large part of the weapons stockpile had been transferred out of the facility. Activists disputed this, maintaining that rebels had taken control of “huge reserves.” A video posted online showed fighters looking over crates of weapons and ammunition, and claimed the attack was mounted by opposition group the Martyrs of Syria.

UK-based opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack, but did not mention chemical weapons among the arms that were reportedly seized by the rebels.

Here is the version of events from pro-Jihadist, anti-Russian al-Jazeera

Syrians trade blame over 'chemical attack'

Foreign ministry in Moscow says opposition is responsible for attack that reportedly killed 31 people and injured 100.

al-Jazeera,

19 March, 2013

Syria's government and rebels have traded accusations of a chemical attack on a northern village near Aleppo.

US officials, however, said on Tuesday there was no evidence of any such attack.

The regime, whose allegation was backed by ally Russia, said 31 people were killed, including 21 civilians and 10 soldiers.

The accusations emerged only a few hours after the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad elected a prime minister to head an interim government that would rule areas seized by rebel forces from the regime.

State-run news agency SANA said more than 100 have been wounded, some of them in critical condition.

SANA published pictures showing casualties, including children, on stretchers in what appears to be a hospital ward.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi called it the "first act" of the newly announced opposition interim government.

Rebels quickly denied the report and accused regime forces of firing the chemical weapon.

Ziad Haddad, a medic in Aleppo, however, told Al Jazeera, the victims seemed to have been exposed to organic pesticides and not chemical weapons, like Sarin and VX nerve agents.

He said several patients arrived in the emergency room earlier on Tuesday morning with cases of suffocation and constricted pupils.

"Several of them died of respiratory inhibition," he said.

"Victims spoke of pungent smell. Chemical weapons are usually odourless."

“Moreover, the number of deaths is small compared to those who would have died had chemical weapons been used."

Haddad said the casualties included Syrian regime soldiers and pro- Assad armed men.

The head of Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said the group was still investigating the alleged chemical attack near Aleppo.

"Everyone who used it, we are against him, whatever he is," Mouaz al-Khatib told reporters in English in Istanbul.

"We are against killing civilians using chemical weapons, but let us wait some time to have accurate information."

The regime is believed to possess nerve agents as well as mustard gas.

It also possesses Scud missiles capable of delivering them, and some activists said Tuesday's attack was with a Scud missile.

The minister al-Zoubi said the missile containing "poisonous gases" was fired from Nairab district in Aleppo into Khan al-Assal.

The reported attack was in an area just west of the city of Aleppo that had seen fierce fighting for weeks before rebels took over a sprawling government complex there last month.

The facility included several military posts and a police academy that Assad's forces have turned into a military base that regularly fires shells at nearby villages.