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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:54AM   Printer-friendly

The Syrian government has once again been accused of attacking a rebel-held area with chemical weapons:

A suspected Syrian government chemical attack killed scores of people, including children, in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, a monitoring group, medics and rescue workers in the rebel-held area said.

The Syrian military denied responsibility and said it would never use chemical weapons.

The head of the health authority in rebel-held Idlib said more than 50 people had been killed and 300 wounded. The Union of Medical Care Organizations, a coalition of international aid agencies that funds hospitals in Syria, said at least 100 people had died.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed at least 58 people and was believed to have been carried out by Syrian government jets. It caused many people to choke, and some to foam at the mouth.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer blamed the attack on the "weakness and irresolution" of the previous U.S. administration.

Also at BBC, NYT, Fox News, the Washington Post, and The Hill.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by butthurt on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:33AM (1 child)

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:33AM (#489061) Journal

    The Russian defence minister, according to the RT story, said that the Iraqi government and international organisations had confirmed the use of chemical weapons in Iraq (the BBC didn't see fit to repeat the claim). I don't know much about the topic, but a quick search of the Web turned up a couple of related stories:

    [The World Health Organisation said] 12 patients had been treated since 1 March in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, east of Mosul, with four of them showing “severe signs associated with exposure to a blister agent”. The patients were said to have been exposed to the chemical agents in the eastern side of Mosul [...]

    [...]

    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday that five children and two women were receiving treatment for exposure to chemical agents. The ICRC statement did not say which side used the chemical agents, which caused blisters, redness in the eyes, irritation, vomiting and coughing.

    -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/04/twelve-people-treated-for-possible-chemical-weapons-exposure-in-iraq [theguardian.com]

    Isis has also used mustard gas against Kurdish forces – up to 19 times in the past two years. The militants thought responsible for the group’s chemical weapons programme are believed to have all been captured, or killed, but a risk remains of further attacks.

    -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/14/last-battle-against-isis-in-iraq-forces-mass-for-mosul-assault [theguardian.com]

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by butthurt on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:40AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:40AM (#489063) Journal

    One more:

    Isis has used chemical munitions, including mustard and chlorine agents, on a number of occasions in Iraq and Syria, according to the CIA.

    -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/iraqi-kurdish-peshmerga-fear-isis-chemical-attack-mosul [theguardian.com]