Dozens of civilians hit with toxic gas in Syria: White Helmets

Syrian Civil Defence Force that operates in rebel held areas said the gas was fired near where a Russian helicopter was shot down

First responders from Syrian Civil Defence Force helps victim of toxic gas attack (YouTube screengrab)

Areeb Ullah-Tuesday 2 August 2016

More than 30 Syrian civilians have been affected by a toxic gas attack carried out on a town close near to where rebel forces shot down a Russian helicopter, a Syrian rescue service said.

A spokespersons for the Syrian Civil Defence Force, known as the White Helmets, released a statement on the group’s webpage on Tuesday, saying that 33 people, mostly women and children, had been injured in the apparent chemical attack.

The group also released footage showing numerous casualties in a makeshift hospital struggling to breath and being given oxygen masks by people in civil defence uniforms.

Initial reports, tweeted out by the White Helmet chief late on Monday, indicated that the casualty toll was somewhat lower and said that 25 people were injured by the gas shortly after rebel forces downed a Russian helicopter nearby, killing five Russian military personnel.

The attack allegedly took place in the city of Saraqeb, in the rebel-held province of Idlib where the White Helmets have operated since the Syrian civil war began.

It remains unclear what type of gas was used in the attack but the White Helmets said it suspects that the gas used by the attackers was chlorine.

It remains unclear as to who conducted the toxic gas attack but various social media usersclaiming to be on the ground in Saraqeb are suggesting the attack was conducted by Syrian government helicopters in retaliation for the Russian helicopter being shot down.

Unconfirmed reports have also claimed that the hospitals in Saraqeb are being evacuated to make way for patients who are critically ill from the toxic gas attacks.

Monitors at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence on all sides in the civil war, also reported that barrel bombs had fallen on Saraqeb late on Monday, wounding a large number of citizens.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), an umbrella opposition group, also accused President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the attack. Assad has previously denied allegations that he has used chemical weapons on civilians.

The SNC in a statement said: “After shelling, besieging and killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes on them, the Assad regime has resorted once again, and in breach of UN resolutions 2118 and 2235, to using chemical substances and toxic gases.

“The daily reality confirms that all the international agreements and previous Security Council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime.”

A spokesperson for the White Helmets also said that it was the second time Saraqeb had been hit by toxic gas. The group said it was aware of around nine suspected chlorine gas incidents across Idlib province since the conflict began.

The Syrian government agreed to hand over its cache of chemical weapons for destruction after the US threatened the government with a military strike in 2014.

This agreement however only covered Sarin, Mustard and VX nerve gas, alongside the precursor chemicals which could be used to make them. The agreement did not include chlorine and ammonia, which has a wide array of civilian uses but can also be weaponised. 

Chlorine as a chemical is commonly used as an antiseptic and often used to make drinking water safe and to treat swimming pools. Large amounts of chlorine are used in many industrial processes, such as in paper products, plastics, dyes, textiles, medicines, insecticides, solvents and paints. 

In 2014 both the United States and France claimed to have seen "raw" information that chlorine had been used by Syrian government forces in rebel held areas and that the incidents would constitute a violation of the chemical weapons convention that Syria signed in 2013. 

Possessing chlorine is not a violation of the convention signed by Syria that led to it surrendering its chemical weapons arsenal, but the treaty bans the use of the gas as a weapon.