Syrian army blamed as hundreds die in chemical weapons attacks

From: The Australian
August 22, 2013 12:00AM




Syrians inspect victims of the chemical attacks. Picture: AFP Source: AFP



MORE than 1000 people were killed yesterday when the Syrian army reportedly bombarded Damascus suburbs with chemical weapons, sparking opposition declarations of a "massacre" and calls for international intervention.

The claim, which could not be independently verified, was vehemently denied by the Syrian regime, saying it was intended to hinder the mission of UN chemical weapons inspectors now in the country.

Video footage showed medics attending to suffocating children and hospitals being overwhelmed. The opposition Syrian National Coalition said last night: "Over 650 confirmed dead result of deadly chemical weapon attack in Syria."

Later reports put the death toll at more than 1000.

French President Francois Hollande called on UN inspectors to examine the site of the alleged attack outside Damascus. During a cabinet session, Mr Hollande "announced his intention to ask the UN to visit the site of the attack and to proceed with an investigation so that all light can be shed" on the incident, a government spokeswoman, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, said yesterday.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his country would refer the opposition charges of a massive chemical weapons strike to the UN Security Council.

He was "deeply concerned" by the reports and said if they were proved, they would mark a "shocking escalation" in Syria's war, which the UN says has claimed more than 100,000 lives in 29 months.

The war has morphed from a protest movement demanding Bashar al-Assad's fall into a complex civil war. Violence has been so fierce in recent days that about 30,000 Syrians, mostly Kurds, have fled to neighbouring Iraq, the UN said on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at least 100 people were killed in yesterday's air raids and shelling that struck several rebel areas east and southwest of Damascus.

"This figure will surely go up," said the Observatory, which gathers its information from activists and medics.

"The raids and bombardment are continuing."

It did not comment on the allegations that the army had used chemical arms in its assault on the densely populated Ghouta suburbs, where rebels have been holding out against government forces.

State news agency Sana said: "Reports on the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta are totally false. It's an attempt to prevent the UN commission of inquiry from carrying out its mission."

The Syrian army said: "These allegations by the terrorist groups and the satellite channels that support them are just a desperate bid to conceal their failures on the battlefield and reflect the state of hysteria and collapse that these (rebel) groups are in.

"The army will continue on its national mission, by facing terrorism across Syrian territory ... to protect the nation from these armed terrorist groups," the army added, in reference to the regime's bid to crush the rebellion.

Throughout the morning, activists reported chemical attacks in several rebel areas east and southwest of Damascus.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a network of activists, reported hundreds of casualties in the "brutal use of toxic gas by the criminal regime".

In videos posted on YouTube, the Syrian Revolution General Commission, another activist group, showed what it called "a terrible massacre committed by regime forces with toxic gas."

The attack "led to suffocation of the children and overcrowding of field hospitals with hundreds of casualties amid extreme shortage of medical supplies to rescue the victims, particularly Atropine," the LCC said.

Eastern Ghouta "was also shelled by warplanes following the chemical attack that is still ongoing, which led to hundreds of casualties and victims, among them entire families," it said. In one video, children are seen being given first aid in a field hospital, notably oxygen to help them breathe. Doctors appear to be trying to resuscitate unconscious children, who showed no signs of bleeding.

A nurse at a Duma medical facility, Bayan Baker, told Reuters: "Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths."

Activist Abu Jihad said: "People working in the field hospital are overwhelmed and unable to do anything for the wounded. There is a severe lack of medicines. The wounded are being treated using water and onions. This regime considers children in liberated areas to be its enemies."

Footage showed dozens of people laid out on the ground, among them many children, some of them covered in white sheets. "Genocide! Genocide in the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham (southwest of Damascus) using chemical weapons," cries the man behind the camera. His voice trembling with fear, he adds: "Where are my parents? Where is my father? My mother?"

The authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified.

In July last year, the Syrian government implicitly admitted that it had stockpiles of chemical weapons. Experts believe these consist of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.

Syria's rebels called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting.

"I call on the Security Council to convene urgently," coalition leader Ahmad Jarba told Al-Arabiya television, condemning what he called a massacre.

Saudi Arabia urged the UN Security Council and EU ministers to immediately address Syria's "massacre".

"It is time for the UN Security Council to assume responsibility ... by convening immediately to reach a clear deterrent decision that ends the humanitarian tragedy," said Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. "We ask EU foreign ministers meeting today in Brussels (to discuss the Egyptian crisis) to have this humanitarian catastrophe as the main topic of their talks."

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon insisted on Monday that the inspectors be granted unrestricted access to Syrian sites.

"In order to credibly establish the facts, the mission must have full access to the sites of the alleged incidents," Mr Ban said.

Al-Watan newspaper said the government had "pledged to cooperate and facilitate the work" of the UN inspectors, who launched their mission on Tuesday.

There have been frequent claims by anti-regime activists of the alleged use of chemical weapons by the army, particularly in Damascus province and Homs.

AFP


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