SYRIA’S TINY VICTIMS
Horror as ‘Assad sarin gas attack’ on rebels leaves 11 children dead
AT least 58 people have been killed – including 11 children – in a suspected sarin attack on a rebel-held town in Syria.
The toxic gas was released from missiles fired by President Bashar alAssad’s fighter jets on the north-west town of Khan Sheikhun at 6.30am yesterday, it was claimed.
Harrowing footage emerged of children and adults staggering through the street with their mouths foaming as they struggled to breathe.
One video showed the bodies of nine young children laid in a row, covered in blankets. Others with no visible injuries were scattered across a town square.
Medical centres were overwhelmed as they tried to save the lives of more than 300 people who were injured during the attack.
Young children were hooked up to oxygen tanks as they lay side by side on makeshift wards. Many appeared unconscious, sparking fears that the final death toll could be much higher.
Hours later a series of air strikes on the same town hit a hospital and two emergency response centres that were treating victims of the initial strike.
Theresa May said during her official visit to the Middle East said she was ‘appalled’ by the attack, adding: ‘If proven, this will be fur- ther evidence of the barbarism of the Syrian regime.
‘I’m very clear that there can be no future for Assad in a stable Syria which is representative of all the Syrian people and I call on all the third parties involved to ensure that we have a transition away from Assad,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘We cannot allow this suffering to continue.’
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the attack was ‘hei- nous’ and ‘reprehensible’, describing it as a catastrophe made worse by the inaction of the Obama administration. ‘I’m not ready to talk about our next step but we’ll talk about that soon,’ he said.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the attack.
Doctors said patients showed symptoms consistent with exposure to sarin gas, which is banned by the chemical weapons conven- tion. Those exposed to a lethal dose die from suffocation. Survivors may suffer permanent neurological damage.
Ahmad Tarakji, head of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports hospitals in opposition-controlled areas, said children had suffocated to death while they slept. ‘How much longer will the world fail to respond to these heinous crimes?’ he asked
Shajul Islam, a British doctor working in Syria, said: ‘We have no doubt this is a sarin attack.’
A doctor at another hospital said they were being overwhelmed. ‘Most of the injuries are pretty serious,’ Dr Mohammed Ahmed said. ‘About 300 people were injured at the site of the attack. We are dealing with at least 20 injured children in our wards. It’s a disaster here, we cannot help everyone. We lack oxygen tanks.’
The Assad regime denied using chemical weapons, as it has done after previous attacks.