Chemical attack kills dozens near Damascus
Syrian regime, Kremlin deny involvement
BEIRUT • Syrian doctors and rescue workers said Sunday that dozens of people had died in an apparent chemical attack on a besieged enclave near Damascus as government forces escalated their offensive to recapture one of the last rebel strongholds near the capital.
At least 40 people were killed Saturday evening in the attack in Douma in eastern Ghouta, about 19 kilometres from Damascus, according to the Syrian-American Medical Society (SAMS), a Washington-based non-profit group that supports health facilities in the area.
More than 500 people “were brought to local medical centres with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent,” non-profit in a joint statement with the opposition-linked Syria Civil Defense, a group of first responders. The patients showed signs of respiratory distress, with many foaming at the mouth and emitting a “chlorine-like odour,” they said.
President Donald Trump responded to the attack Sunday morning on Twitter.
“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” he said. “Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price ...”
Regarding a possible U.S. response, White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Thomas Bossert said, “I wouldn’t take anything off the table.”
“We’re looking into the attack,” he said in an interview on ABC’s This Week set to air Sunday.
Syrian state media denied government involvement. Russia’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed claims that Syrian troops were responsible. Russia is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The allegations are “without basis” and are “designed to shield the terrorists ... who reject a political settlement,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Earlier, the State Department singled out the Syrian and Russian governments, saying they “must be held accountable.” Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert described the reports from Eastern Douma as “disturbing and “horrifying,” saying they required an “immediate response by the international community.”
Multiple reports, including from rescue workers and the State Department, said the initial attack targeted a hospital. The chemicals then spread to surrounding residential areas, they said. It was unclear, however, what type of chemicals may have been used.
A representative for the United Nations said that Secretary General António Guterres was “particularly alarmed by allegations that chemical weapons have been used against civilian populations in Douma” but that the United Nations was “not in a position to verify these reports.”
Syrian doctors and rescue workers on Sunday shared with journalists graphic images of men, women and children they said had been killed or wounded in the attack.
“We tried to send people to the area to rescue the injured, but even the rescue workers began suffocating,” said Mohamed Samer, a medical worker in Douma.
Some of the footage showed piles of bodies inside homes or slumped in concrete stairwells, foam visible on their noses and mouths. In other videos, civilians streamed into a chaotic field clinic where workers attempted to treat those affected, including an ashenfaced man who appeared to convulse.
Many of the images recalled earlier chemical weapons attacks on civilians in Syria, including those involving the nerve agent sarin.
A year ago, nearly 100 people were killed in a sarin attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun that the United Nations has blamed on the Syrian air force. In 2013, also in eastern Ghouta, a sarin attack killed more than 1,000 people — an event that prompted then-president Barack Obama to threaten military action against the Syrian government.
The non-profit group SAMS and the Syria Civil Defense reported Sunday that at least one woman had convulsions and constricted pupils, which experts say indicate possible exposure to a nerve agent.
Pope Francis closed his traditional Sunday blessing by saying “nothing can justify” the use of chemical weapons against defenceless populations and called for those responsible for the suspected attack in Syria to seek negotiations.
WE TRIED TO SEND PEOPLE TO THE AREA ... BUT EVEN THE RESCUE WORKERS BEGAN SUFFOCATING.