‘Silence of our friends is killing us’
Reports of at least 100 killed as UN chemical weapons team visiting
BEIRUT Syrian anti-government activists accused the regime of carrying out a toxic gas attack that killed at least 100 people, including many children as they slept, during intense artillery and rocket barrages Wednesday on the eastern suburbs of Damascus.
The attack coincided with the visit by a 20-member UN chemical weapons team to Syria to investigate three sites where attacks allegedly occurred during the past year. Their presence raises questions about why the regime, which called the claims of the attack Wednesday “absolutely baseless,” would use chemical agents at this time.
Shocking images emerged, showing pale, lifeless bodies of children lined up on floors of makeshift hospitals. One appeared to be a toddler clad in diapers. There was no visible blood or wounds on their skin.
The reported death toll Wednesday would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in Syria’s civil war. There were conflicting reports, however, as to what exactly transpired and the death toll ranged from 100 to 1,300.
Syria’s information minister called the activists’ claim a “disillusioned and fabricated one whose objective is to deviate and mislead” the UN mission.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called the reports “extremely concerning” and said Canada will continue to monitor the situation closely and seek further information.
“Such an attack is completely unacceptable, and we call on the Assad regime to co-operate with the UN officials investigating these disturbing reports,” Baird said in a statement.
France’s president demanded the United Nations be granted access to the site of Wednesday’s alleged attack, while Britain’s foreign secretary said if the claims are verified it would mark “a shocking escalation of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.”
The White House said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” by the reports. Spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House had requested that the UN “urgently investigate.”
“If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the UN team’s immediate and unfettered access to this site,” Earnest said.
Syria’s ally, Russia, however, described the reports as “alarmist.”
The heavy shelling starting around 3 a.m. local time pounded the capital’s eastern suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman cited activists in the area who said “poisonous gas” was fired in rockets as well as from the air in the attack. He said that he has documented at least 100 deaths, but said it was not clear whether the victims died from shelling or toxic gas.
However, he and other opposition groups described a ferocious offensive on the eastern suburbs known as eastern Ghouta, saying “hundreds” of shells and rockets were unleashed by regime forces Wednesday on the region.
Another group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling. The Syrian National Coalition, Syria’s main opposition group in exile, put the number at 1,300. The group said it was basing its claim on accounts and photographs by activists on the ground.
George Sabra, a senior member of the coalition, blamed the regime, as well as “the weakness of the UN and American hesitation” for the deaths. “The silence of our friends is killing us,” he said.
Syria is said to have one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin. The government refuses to confirm or deny it possesses such weapons.
In June, the U.S. said it had conclusive evidence that Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama called a “red line,” prompting a U.S. decision to begin arming rebel groups, although that has not happened yet.
An opposition activist and a pharmacist in the town of Arbeen who identified himself by the pseudonym Abu Ahmad said he attended to dozens of injured people in a field hospital after the shelling on Zamalka and Ein Tarma early Wednesday. He said many were moved to Arbeen.
He said bodies of 63 of the dead had indications of a chemical weapons attack but he could not confirm this. “Their mouths were foaming, their pupils were constricted, and those who were brought in while still alive could not draw their breaths and died subsequently,” he told The Associated Press via Skype. “The skin around their eyes and noses was greyish.”
Activists in Zamalka told Abu Ahmad that an additional 200 people died in that town on Wednesday.
The Syrian government denied the claims of a chemical weapons attack Wednesday.
“All what has been said is ridiculous and naive, unscientific, illogical and subjective,” said Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, speaking to Syrian state television.
An activist group in Arbeen posted on its Facebook page pictures purporting to show rows of Syrian children, wrapped in white death shrouds, and others with their chests bared. There appeared to be very little signs of blood or physical wounds on the bodies. An amateur video showed four children on the floor of a makeshift hospital, apparently unconscious, as a doctor is seen giving them some sort of shots. A bit later, a child starts shaking slowly.
“Is this baby girl a terrorist?” a man could be heard asking. “God willing, we will bring his regime down. He (Assad) is killing Sunni children in front of the whole world.”