Man’s family decimated in gas attack
Abdulhamid al-Youssef sobbed as he carried his infant twins, wrapped in matching white shrouds, to their final resting place.
Ahmad and Aya, nine months old, died on Tuesday morning in a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, northern Syria, along with Youssef ’s wife, Dalal, and 16 other members of his family.
Tuesday he had to bury them all in an unmarked mass grave.
The 29-year-old supermarket cashier had been at work when the air strike hit close to his home just after 6.30 a.m. When his wife called to tell him what had happened, he rushed home to be with them.
They appeared to be fine, but as a precaution he took them all down to the basement of a nearby building in case of another strike.
ONE HOUR AFTER GAS ATTACK, FAMILY APPEARED SAFE. THAT’S WHEN THE SHAKING BEGAN
It was only then, an hour later, that they began displaying symptoms.
“The family was all waiting down there and were safe, but then they started choking,” said Youssef’s cousin, Alaa. “The twins suddenly began shaking and struggling to breathe.”
Youssef brought them to paramedics and, thinking they would be OK, went to look for the rest of his family. He found the bodies of two of his brothers, two nephews and a niece, as well as neighbours and friends. “I couldn’t save anyone, they’re all dead now,” he said.
Only later was he told his children and wife had died.
On Tuesday, Youssef hugged both children, who looked peaceful in death, stroked their hair and choked back tears, mumbling, “Say goodbye, baby, say goodbye” to their lifeless bodies. Then he laid them to rest. Apart from a bruise on Ahmad’s cheek there was no obvious sign of injuries.
“Chemical attacks leave no marks,” said Mamoun Najem, a doctor at alRahma hospital in Idlib who treated the victims. “It’s a silent killer that works its way through the body slowly.”
He saw dozens of patients arrive that morning and into the afternoon. He says he has never seen such severe cases of poisoning before.
“Their pupils were as small as pinpricks, their skin was cold. They were unresponsive like zombies,” he said.
A nurse at the hospital, who did not wish to give his name, said: “The smell reached us here in the centre; it smelled like rotten food. We’ve received victims of chlorine before — this was completely different.
“Victims had vomit from the nose and mouth, a dark yellow colour, sometimes turning to brown. They had paralysis of their respiratory functions — children were dying faster than adults because of this.”
Western intelligence agencies are hoping to conduct biological tests on survivors to compare against specimens of the chemical sarin taken from the Syrian military four years ago. There is growing suspicion that the government did not declare a portion of its sarin stockpile to United Nations inspectors, who supervised the surrender of its supplies.
The regime did so under a deal, brokered with the help of President Bashar Assad’s Russian allies, to help avert threatened military action by the United States after a chemical attack on the Damascus suburbs in 2013 killed up to 1,300 people.
Footage of the aftermath of Tuesday’s attack, which shows victims convulsing, struggling to breathe, and foaming from the mouth, has shocked and outraged the world.
The death toll reached 86 on Tuesday, including 30 children, making it the deadliest chemical assault since 2013.
Idlib governorate’s medical authority released an updated list of the dead. The youngest of the Youssef family was nine months old, the eldest was 68. The number was expected to rise further, however, as many are believed to have died in their homes and are yet to be taken to the hospitals to be counted.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the symptoms victims displayed were consistent with exposure to a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents.
“The likelihood of exposure to a chemical attack is amplified by an apparent lack of external injuries reported in cases showing a rapid onset of similar symptoms, including acute respiratory distress as the main cause of death,” it said.
Neither side denied there had been a chemical attack, however Russia claimed a Syrian government air strike had hit a rebel chemical weapons warehouse, while the U.S. and UK pointed the finger solely at Assad’s regime.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned Wednesday that the Trump administration will take action against chemical attacks in Syria that bear “all the hallmarks” of Assad’s government if the UN Security Council fails to act.