Syrian activists and a doctor on Thursday reported new suspected chemical attacks in the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria, leaving several dozens of people suffering from asphyxiation.
Mohammed Tennari, a doctor who testified before the UN Security Council last month after treating a number of victims in Idlib from an earlier chemical attack, said there were at least three separate attacks in the province that injured nearly 80 people.
Tennari, who spoke with reporters from near the border with Turkey, shared field reports from doctors in the three villages that were reportedly hit. The reports said government helicopters dropped barrel bombs containing chlorine on the villages of al-Janoudieh, Kansafrah and Kafr el-Batiekh on Thursday.
Photo: Reuters
Tennari is on his way back from the US, where he reported to the council on a suspected chlorine attack in March that killed three children and their grandmother in the same province. He is the coordinator for the Syrian American Medical Society, which has volunteer medical personnel treating victims and reporting on attacks in Syria.
Also, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, another monitoring group that is based outside the country, reported the three different attacks, sharing on Twitter images it said were from field hospitals where victims were taken. The group reported that 69 people were injured in the attacks.
The reports could not be independently verified. There has been an increase in reports of suspected chlorine bombs amid intensified fighting in the province where the rebels have made significant advances against government troops in recent weeks. Rebel fighters seized the provincial capital and weeks later moved in on a strategic town near the border with Turkey. The government has vowed to restore control.
Tennari said a man in his thirties died on Thursday from another suspected chlorine attack in a fourth village in Idlib on Saturday last week. The man’s six-month-old baby died in that attack, Tennari said.
Despite condemning such attacks, the UN has been unable to follow through with action or assign blame. The rise in attacks comes as the US is leading an effort to create a way to attribute blame.
On Thursday, the current council president, Lithuanian Ambassador to the UN Raimonda Murmokaite, said a “large majority” of members support the US effort and are ready to move quickly in the next few days. However, Syria ally Russia worried whether it will be objective, with Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin telling reporters: “They’ve done their attribution of blame already.”
Even though the UN Security Council, badly divided on Syria, came together in 2013 to rid Syria of its chemical weapons program, chlorine was not included in that effort. The chemical does not have to be declared, because it is also used for regular purposes in industry. Chlorine is a poisonous chemical element used as a bleaching agent and for water purification, but in more concentrated form can cause victims to suffocate.
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