SANAA, Yemen — Doctors from the scene of violent anti-government protests in Yemen’s capital Tuesday night said that what was originally thought to be tear gas fired by government forces on demonstrators might instead have been a form of nerve gas, which is forbidden under international law. 
 
 Military personnel opened fire and used what was originally assumed to be tear gas to disperse a group of demonstrators who were trying to bring additional tents into the protest area outside Sanaa University. 
 
 According to witnesses, the soldiers fired warning shots into the air before shooting gas — and in some cases live bullets — into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least 50. 
 
 Earlier reports indicated that the gas used was tear gas, but doctors who have been treating the wounded refuted that claim today. 
 
 “The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyzes them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief. 
 
 “We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 percent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa. 
 
 Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers. 
 
 “We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said. 
 
 One of the protest organizers, Rabie Al-Zuraiqi, 23, said he was struck by rubber bullets and gas during the attack. 
 
 “They say it’s tear gas, though it’s not. I can’t move my body. I went into a coma for more than four hours and I can’t see well now. I also have internal bleeding after being exposed to the gas,” he told GlobalPost. 
 
 Whether or not an illegal substance was used to gas protesters, Tuesday’s violence marked what appears to be a turning point for the country’s protest movement, which has dragged on for months. 
 
 Although there had been previous instances of violence, it had always been between plainclothed government supporters and anti-government protesters. The attack Tuesday was the first by uniformed police. 
 
 It was also the first time that live ammunition was used. Al-Zuraiqi said that a 30-year-old protester had died of internal bleeding after being shot in the back of the head. 
 
 In a makeshift hospital at the grounds of a mosque next to the university, volunteer doctors administered IV drips and treated bullet wounds on Tuesday night. 
 
 A surgeon probed a leg wound with forceps, while the man screamed, pulling out a fragment of metal. 
 
 "See this?" the doctor said, holding it up. "Do you see this? They are shooting people with live rounds." Another volunteer brought over a handful of empty shell casings. 
 
 In a corner of the mosque, a younger man screamed as a doctor poured coca-cola over his face to ease the pain from the gas. 
 
 After opening his eyes, the young man, Majid Al-Awaj, a protester from the northern province of Hajja, said the attack would only increase the strength of the revolt. 
 
 “We demand that Saleh be tried by the International Criminal Court,” Al-Awaj said. 
 
 At the university on Wednesday morning, protesters cleaned up from the previous night. A woman, crying, searched for her son, who she had sent to take food to the protesters but had never returned. 
 
 There have been daily anti-government demonstrations in Sanaa and other cities around the country since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ouster on Feb. 11. During the past few weeks, 29 people have been killed in the unrest, according to international human rights groups. 
 
 President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said he will step down when his term ends in 2013 but has vowed to defend his government "with every drop of blood." 
 
 Watch video taken the night of the attack: ||||| BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said on Tuesday a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter had been shot down hours earlier. 
 
 The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) accused President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the attack. Assad has denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons. 
 
 A spokesman for the Syria Civil Defence said 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas, which they suspect was chlorine, in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province. 
 
 The group, which describes itself as a neutral band of search and rescue volunteers, posted a video on YouTube apparently showing a number of men struggling to breathe and being given oxygen masks by people in civil defense uniforms. 
 
 “Medium-sized barrels fell containing toxic gases. The Syrian Civil Defence was not able to determine the type of the gas,” said the spokesman. 
 
 The Syrian government and its Russian allies were not immediately available for comment. 
 
 Related Coverage U.S. says looking into reports of toxic gas dropped on Syrian town 
 
 Later, state news agency SANA said rebels had fired rockets armed with toxic gas on the government-held old quarter of Aleppo city, killing five people and causing eight breathing difficulties. It gave no further details. Rebels have denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons. 
 
 The SNC said of the reported use of poison gas in Saraqeb: “After shelling, besieging and killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes on them, the Assad regime has resorted once again, and in breach of UN resolutions 2118 and 2235, to using chemical substances and toxic gases. 
 
 “The daily reality confirms that all the international agreements and previous security council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime.” 
 
 The Civil Defence spokesman said it was the second time Saraqeb had been hit by toxic gas. The group was aware of around nine suspected chlorine gas incidents across Idlib province since the conflict began, he said. 
 
 The U.S. State Department said it was looking into the reported use of chemical weapons in Saraqeb. 
 
 “I’m not in a position to confirm the veracity of (the reports),” said spokesman John Kirby. “Certainly, if it’s true, it would be extremely serious.” 
 
 A still image taken on August 2, 2016 from a video said to be taken on August 1, 2016 posted on social media shows a man sitting breathing through a mask in what is said to be in Saraqeb, Idlib province, Syria. Social Media/Handout via Reuters Tv 
 
 Monitors at the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence on all sides in the civil war, said barrel bombs fell on Saraqeb late on Monday, wounding a large number of citizens. 
 
 Russia’s defense ministry said a Russian helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb during the day on Monday, killing all five people on board, in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria. 
 
 DENIALS 
 
 The helicopter came down roughly mid-way between Aleppo and Russia’s main air base at Hmeimim in the western province of Latakia, near the Mediterranean coast. 
 
 Russian air power began supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad late last year, an intervention which tipped the balance of the war in Assad’s favor, eroding gains the rebels had made that year. 
 
 No group has claimed responsibility for downing the Mi-8 military transport helicopter. 
 
 Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks. The government and Russia have accused rebels of using poison gas. 
 
 Slideshow (4 Images) 
 
 U.N. investigators established that sarin gas was used in Eastern Ghouta in 2013. The United States accused Damascus of that attack, which it estimates killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children. Damascus denied responsibility, and blamed rebels. 
 
 Later that year the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January 2016. 
 
 The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed in late 2015 that sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, had been used for the first time in the conflict, without saying which party in the many sided conflict it thought had used it.
– Doctors and protesters in Yemen think the government is using banned nerve gas, not regular tear gas, to quell protests, reports Global Post. Three doctors treating patients say the symptoms are suspiciously severe. “The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours," said one field doctor after soldiers fired bullets and gas into a crowd of protesters outside Sanaa University yesterday. "We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems," said another. "I’m 90% sure it's nerve gas and not tear gas." If so, it would put Yemen authorities in violation of international law. Either way, the government seems to be taking an increasingly violent approach, notes Global Post. In addition to the gas, soldiers fired live ammunition, killing one protester. Demonstrations continued today, notes AP.