Syrian rebel forces are accusing President Bashar al-Assad’s regime using chemical weapons on its own people, but the government has denied the reports.
With the dead estimated at between 500 and 1,300, what would be the world’s most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York.
“Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,” said Bayan Baker, a nurse at Douma Emergency Collection facility, according to Reuters. Medical centers in Damascus say that at least 213 people have been killed, though anti-government activists say that number is much higher.
Media images showed scores of bodies, many of young children, laid out on the floors of clinics with no visible signs of injuries, raising the suspicion that poison gas might have been used on the people.
Al-Assad’s government denied the accusations, however, and said that the rebels are trying to create a distraction.
While U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed shock, immediate international action is likely to be limited, with the divisions among major powers that have crippled efforts to quell two and a half years of civil war still much in evidence.
Russia hastened to back up denials from the administration of President Bashar al-Assad by saying it looked like a rebel “provocation” to discredit him.
Britain voiced the opposite view: “I hope this will wake up some who have supported the Assad regime to realize its murderous and barbaric nature,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said on a visit to Paris, London’s ally against Assad.
France, Britain, the United States and others called for an immediate on-site investigation by U.N. chemical weapons inspectors who arrived in the Syrian capital only this week. Moscow, urging an “objective” inquiry, said the very presence of that team suggested government forces were not to blame.
With the crisis situation in Syria, independent sources have been unable to confirm the exact death toll, or whether chemical weapons have indeed been used.
Some analysts, however, have questioned the logic behind the government launching a large chemical attack at the exact time when UN inspectors are probing chemical weapon claims.
“It would be very peculiar if it was the government to do this at the exact moment the international inspectors come into the country,” said Rolf Ekeus, a former UN weapons inspector who headed a team in Iraq in the 1990s.
“At the least, it wouldn’t be very clever.”
Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, added: “While it is clearly impossible to confirm the chemical weapons claim, it is clear from videos uploaded by reliable accounts that a large number of people have died.”
An opposition monitoring group, citing figures compiled from clinics in the Damascus suburbs, put the death toll at 494 – 90 percent killed by gas, the rest by bombs and conventional arms. The rebel Syrian National Coalition said 650 people died.
Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar during a fierce pre-dawn bombardment by government forces. The Damascus Media Office said 150 bodies were counted in Hammouriya, 100 in Kfar Batna, 67 in Saqba, 61 in Douma, 76 in Mouadamiya and 40 in Erbin.
Residents of the capital said mortars later hit government-held areas in Faris Khoury Street and the Malki district, where Assad has a residence. There were no reports of injuries.
Heavy air strikes continued throughout the day against the rebel suburbs of Mouadamiya and Jobar.
