Massacre in Idlib: Assad’s nerve-gas attack kills 58

Syrian regime denies launching ‘heinous’ assault on civilians as world anger grows ahead of Security Council meeting today

BEIRUT // The Assad regime faced international condemnation yesterday for a chemical attack that killed at least 58 people, including 11 children.

The Syrian military denies using chemicals to attack the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, northern Syria. Military general command said it was too honourable to carry out such heinous crimes.

The regime’s ally, Russia, also denied any involvement.

But the Syrian Coalition, an opposition group outside the country, and eyewitnesses in Idlib said government planes conducted the air raids, firing missiles carrying poisonous gas and inflicting “a horrifying massacre” on the civilian population. Photos and video from Khan Sheikhoun showed limp bodies of children and adults on the ground, some fighting for breath, some foaming at the mouth.

One doctor published video of his patients on Twitter and said his hospital in Idlib province received three victims, all with pinpoint pupils that did not respond to light.

Greatly contracted pupils, breathing difficulties and foaming at the mouth are symptoms commonly associated with toxic gas exposure.

The opposition’s Civil Defence search-and-rescue group released photos showing paramedics washing down victims, and activists released footage of victims being taken from the scene in a pickup truck.

The victims were stripped down to their underwear and many appeared unresponsive.

The Idlib Media Centre posted film of medics intubating an unresponsive man and hooking up a ventilator to a little girl who was foaming at the mouth.

It was not known whether all of those who were killed died from suffocation or were struck by other air raids occurring in the area about the same time.

It was the third claim of a chemical attack in just over a week.

The previous two were reported in Hama province, in an area not far from Khan Sheikhoun.

Opposition activists described yesterday’s attack as among the worst in the six-year war in Syria.

It came on the eve of a major international meeting in Brussels on the future of Syria and the region, to be hosted by the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini.

France’s foreign minister condemned the “atrocious act” and the UN Security Council will hold an emergency session early today. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said US president Donald Trump was “extremely alarmed” by reports of the attack and said it was “reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilised world”.

Mr Spicer also blamed the “weakness and irresolution” of former president Barack Obama for not responding to previous chemical attacks in Syria. Radiologist Mohammed Tennari said yesterday’s attack was more severe than previous chemical attacks in Idlib province, which mostly featured chlorine cylinders.

“Honestly, we have not seen this before,” said Dr Tennari, who in 2015 testified before the UN on Syria’s renewed use of chemical attacks after Ghouta. “The previous times the wounds were less severe. There were no deaths, not in those numbers.”

There was a chlorine smell but it was mixed with other things, he said. His brother Dr AbdulHaj Tennari, a pulmonologist who treated dozens of patients in yesterday’s attack, said it appeared to be more serious than a chlorine attack and medics were further hampered by a shortage of medical supplies, especially the antidote Pralidoxem.

Most victims died before they reached hospitals, he said.

“If they got to the hospital we could treat them. Two children who took a while to be removed from the rubble died.”

Tarik Jasarevic, spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva, said the agency was contacting health providers from Idlib to get more information about yesterday’s atrocity.

The Syrian American Medical Society, which supports hospitals in opposition-held territory, said it had sent a team of inspectors to Khan Sheikhoun and an investigation was under way. Mohammed Hassoun, an activist in nearby Sarmin where some of the critical cases were transferred, said the hospital there had been equipped to deal with such chemical attacks because the town was struck in one early in the Syrian uprising.

“There are 18 critical cases here. They were unconscious, they had seizures and when oxygen was administered, they bled from the nose and mouth,” Mr Hassoun said.

He is documenting the attack for the Syrian American Medical Society and said doctors believed it was probable that more than one gas was used, possibly including sarin.

“Chlorine gas doesn’t cause such convulsions,” Mr Hassoun said.

Hussein Kayal, a photographer for the Idlib Media Centre, was woken by the sound of a bomb blast about 6.30am. When he arrived at the scene there was no smell, he said.

Mr Kayal found entire families inside their homes, lying on the floor, eyes wide open and unable to move. Their pupils were constricted. He put on a mask and helped to wash victims down with water, and felt a burning sensation in his fingers as he did.

Idlib is almost entirely controlled by the Syrian opposition. They have long feared the government was planning to mount a concentrated attack on the province, the population of which has swelled with about 900,000 displaced Syrians.

In 2013, hundreds of civilians were killed when toxic sarin gas was dropped on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

President Bashar Al Assad subsequently agreed to hand over Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, comprising 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons and the ingredients to make more.

But the chemical chlorine, which is widely available, was not covered in that agreement and dozens of chlorine attacks have been documented since.