Man’s family die in gas attack

Wife and twins among 25 family members killed by chemical weapons

A father has spoken of his devastation after losing 25 family members, including his wife and nine-month-old twins, in a suspected chemical gas attack in Syria.

Pictures of Abdul-Hamid Alyousef carrying the bodies of his infant children, Ahmad and Aya, in each arm were widely shared in the wake of the Idlib attack, which has prompted accusations of war crimes against the Syrian government.

Speaking to journalist Moaz Alshami, Mr Alyousef, 29, said “criminal planes” had carried out the raid at 7am on Tuesday.

“I took my wife and children and left the house. As we were leaving, about five minutes later, we started to smell nasty smells,” he said.

After taking them to paramedics and thinking they would be OK, Mr Alyousef found the bodies of two of his brothers, two nephews and a niece, along with other friends and neighbours.

He described trying to carry his niece, but said: “I couldn’t. I tried a lot. The gas hit at this point, and I started to feel dizzy and lost consciousness.”

Four hours later, Mr Alyousef discovered that his wife, Dalal Ahmed, and young children had also died.

Further footage shows the shopkeeper being held up as he stands crying at the graves of his lost loved ones.

“God wanted them by his side,” he says of his wife and children as he was driven away from the hastily-prepared grave site.

The death toll currently stands at 86, and Turkish officials say post-mortem examinations on some of the victims indicate that they were subjected to a chemical weapons attack.

The Syrian authorities have denied that they carried out any gas attack, and insist they have never used chemical weapons on civilians.

Picture: AP. World Health Organisation experts work as they take part in an autopsy conducted in a hospital in Adana, Turkey. Turkish media, quoting the country’s justice minister Bekir Bozdag, says autopsy results show Syrians were victims of a chemical weapons...