At least 41 civilians were on Saturday being treated following a suspected poison gas attack by Syrian rebel groups on government-held Aleppo in the country’s north, Syrian state media said.
Syrian state TV previously said that 21 people had been injured, but people continued to arrive at a hospital in Aleppo where state TV was airing live.
Doctors told state TV that most of those admitted to hospitals suffered from breathing problems and blurred vision.
One doctor said that two were in critical condition, including a child.
State TV showed footage of medical professionals treating men and women on hospital beds.
Rami Abdurrahman, the head of Britain-based non-governmental organization the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that there was a stench of gas in Aleppo after projectiles were fired.
Syrian rebels have dismissed government accusations that they used poison gas to attack Aleppo.
Rebel commander Abdel-Salam Abdel-Razak said that the opposition did not possess poisonous gases or the capabilities to lob them.
Abdel-Razak served in Syria’s chemical weapons program before defecting to join the opposition in the early years of the conflict, which began in 2011.
“These are lies,” Abdel-Razak tweeted soon after reports emerged of an attack in Aleppo that injured dozens of people.
Rebel spokesman Mustafa Sejari dismissed the poison-gas claims, saying that they came after government shells landed in rebel-held areas, violating a Russian-backed ceasefire.
The government is trying to undermine the ceasefire, Sejardi said.
Aleppo police chief Essam al-Shali told state TV that the projectiles landed in the al-Khalidiya neighborhood and wind conditions caused the gas to spread.
State TV later said that the gas affected two other areas in the city.
There were no deaths, al-Shali said.
Aleppo Governor Hussein Diab visited the injured at the hospital.
He told state TV that a total of 41 people had been admitted and accused rebels of using poisonous gas in the missiles they lobbed at the Aleppo neighborhood.
An unnamed doctor told the same outlet that a poisonous gas was believed to have been used, but tests were needed to determine what kind.
Earlier, state media said it was believed to be chlorine.
One patient said that a foul smell had filled the air after projectiles were lobbed.
“There are often missiles on the city, but this is the first time we smelled such a smell,” the patient said, without giving his name.
Aleppo has come under rebel attack over the past few weeks, with missiles falling inside the city. The government has responded with counterattacks on rebel-held areas in the countryside surrounding the city.
In the absence of independent monitors, it is difficult to corroborate gas attacks, but both sides of the conflict have accused each other throughout the war of using poison gas.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver