Killer toxic gas attack

SYRIA: AHEAD OF UN, EU CONFERENCE ON FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY

Victims in the rebel-held town mostly civilians, including several children.

Warplanes carried out a suspected toxic gas attack that killed at least 58 people including several children in a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria yesterday, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed in the town of Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province, had died from the effects of the gas, adding that dozens more suffered respiratory problems and other symptoms.

The Britain-based monitoring group was unable to confirm the nature of the substance, and said it was unclear if the planes involved in the attack were Syrian or those of the government’s ally Russia.

The reported gas attack comes at the start of a two-day conference on Syria’s future hosted in Brussels by the European Union and the United Nations.

The Observatory said medical sources in the town reported symptoms among the affected including fainting, vomiting and foaming at the mouth. The victims were mostly civilians, it said, and included at least nine children.

Photographs circulated by activists showed members of the volunteer White Helmets rescue group using hoses to wash down the injured.

Idlib province is largely controlled by an alliance of rebels including former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front. –