At least 55 people were killed when a regime warplane carried out a chlorine gas attack in Syria’s north-western Idlib province on Tuesday, according to a local civil defense official. “There were many children among the dead,” Enes Berakat told Anadolu Agency.
He said more than 215 were injured in the attack, which targeted Khan Shaykun town in Idlib.
Tuesday’s attack came one day after a regime aircraft carried out a similar chlorine gas attack on Al-Habit town in Idlib, affecting 20 people.
Last year, a UN-appointed investigation panel found that chemical weapons were used by regime forces and opposition fighters in 2014 and 2015. However, no actionable steps were taken.
Chlorine gas is one of several elements and compounds used in devastating chemical attacks, outlawed by international treaties. High level of exposure to the gas can cause suffocation as the chemical injuries in the pulmonary airways result in severe fluid buildup in the lungs, with children and seniors particularly vulnerable.
Since March 2011, the Syrian opposition has demanded an end to more than 44 years of Assad family’s rule and the establishment of a democratic state.
The Syrian regime had responded to the protests with military force, pushing the country into a vicious downward spiral of violence, bloody battles and a civil war that is still ongoing between the regime and opposition forces.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.
The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.
Source: http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/43-killed-in-chlorine-gas-attack-in-syri…
