A child receives treatment at a field hospital after an alleged chemical attack Tuesday in Idlib in northern Syria.

Idlib Media Center / EPA</s>The View From Khan Shaykhun: A Syrian Describes The Attack's Aftermath

For Syrian activist Samer al-Hussein, Tuesday morning started much like any other.

"We woke up," he says, "as usual, to the sounds of warplanes that barely ever leave the skies of Idlib Province."

He got word from fellow opposition activists that new strikes had targeted a nearby town, Khan Shaykhun. The 28-year-old prepared to leave his wife and sons — a toddler and a newborn — and head to the scene.

As they had many times before, he and other activists planned to document what happened, record the names of the victims and try to get the word out. Six years after they started protesting against President Bashar Assad's rule, this is what much of their opposition activities have come down to.

Before reaching the town, just a few miles away, it became clear this was no ordinary strike.

Fellow activists in Khan Shaykhun, communicating via walkie-talkie, warned them that the bombs had released chemicals. They heard the word "sarin" — a toxic nerve gas — and pulled over.

"We were afraid of inhaling the smoke. We didn't want to die, to be honest," al-Hussein told NPR in a conversation over the WhatsApp messaging app. They waited for about 15 minutes, until they saw the flood of victims being evacuated past them. Then they decided to venture in.

"I saw something I'd never seen in my life," Hussein said. "Dozens of children, women, men and elderly people lying on the ground, getting hosed down with water, out in the cold. Children trying to breath a gasp of air, with saliva and foam coming out of their mouths and nostrils."

Hussein wept as he watched first responders succumb to the chemicals themselves. He frantically searched for a ventilator for one of the children, but in those moments when he was looking, he says, "was the difference between life and death."

He says he saw entire families being pulled from their apartments, lifeless. The strikes came just at daybreak, he said, "before the children would be leaving for school or the parents for work."

Dumbstruck and with little else to do, Hussein covered victims with blankets, to give them a measure of dignity. They showed no signs of outward wounds or blood.

The World Health Organization says its partners on the ground counted at least 70 fatalities, people who died of apparent exposure to "highly toxic chemicals."

Hussein shared a list of names compiled by activists, typed painstakingly in Arabic: 74 victims. Twenty-one were children.

Hundreds of others suffered from the effects of toxic chemicals in the aftermath of the attack. The WHO said area hospitals were unable to handle the flood of victims, and dozens were transported across the border to Turkey — more than 80 miles away — for treatment.

That in itself was an ordeal, activists said, with some of the wounded waiting hours to cross the border.

The WHO said that two area hospitals which should have been able to treat the victims had been "damaged" — one on Tuesday, the day of the attack, as it received victims, and the other on the previous Sunday.

Hussein said Russian warplanes were to blame for targeting Khan Shaykhun's only hospital hours after the initial attack and returning to bomb the town's civil defense center, from where first responders work.

He had been to the civil defense center just hours before, watching in horror as rescue workers stripped the wounded before they tried to hose off the toxic substance.

"Some of these people, their faces had turned yellow and they had stopped breathing," said Hussein. "As I'm describing the incident to you now, my hands are shaking. No, my whole body is shaking. We were all shaken by what we saw."

President Trump has blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces for the attack. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley threatened that the United States could act unilaterally if the Security Council wasn't willing to take action.

Syria's military has vehemently denied using chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun or in any previous attack.

For those on the ground, the harsh statements and the denials brought back memories of 2013, when a sarin attack against the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus nearly provoked a U.S. strike. Syria agreed then to give up its chemical weapons stockpile — which it had never admitted possessing — under a U.S.- and Russia-brokered deal.

In the years that followed, allegations of smaller-scale chemical attacks have persisted, mainly involving chlorine — which is not banned because of its hygienic uses. The U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been tasked jointly to investigate those allegations.

They assessed Syrian government forces used toxic chemicals as weapons on three occasions between 2014 and 2015. (The Islamic State was also identified as using chemical weapons in its attacks, but is not active in Idlib Province).

The U.N.-OPCW mission says it is the process of investigating the new allegations.

Meanwhile, Syria's conventional war grinds on. On the same day that residents of Khan Shaykhun were suffocating to death, the opposition-leaning Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that 34 people, most of them women and children, were killed in airstrikes elsewhere in Idlib Province, while rebel factions, led by a former al-Qaida affiliate, pressed an offensive against government-held areas of neighboring Hama Province and shelled two isolated, pro-government villages in Idlib.

Syrian government forces are in a better position than they've been in years, seizing back territory with help from powerful allies, Iran and Russia. Rebels have been pushed into surrender deals from Aleppo to Homs, and opposition fighters have been evacuated with their families and peaceful dissidents to northern, rebel-held territory. But that territory, dominated by jihadist factions and under regular attack from the air, offers little freedom or security to civilians.

Hussein says Syria needs a durable accord between all parties.

"At the end of the day, as Syrian people, we have lost a lot," he says. "We've lost our children, our women, our country as a whole. It's something hard to put into words."</s>At least 58 are dead after a suspected chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun, the Associated Press reports. Local activists described the attack as the worst since the 2013 toxic gas attack in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, which killed hundreds.

The number of dead comes from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also said that 11 of the 58 dead were children. Activists believe the airstrike was carried out either by the Syrian government or Russian warplanes, according to the AP,

The White Helmets, a volunteer civil defense organization, posted pictures to their Twitter account of people being rushed to hospitals for treatment after the attack.

The suspected chemical attack is the third in Syria in just over a week. Both previous attacks occurred in the Hama province, not far from Khay Shaykhun, according to the AP.

The Syrian American Medical Society, a nonprofit medical relief organization, said it sent inspectors to Khan Shaykhun and that an investigation is underway. Currently, the group has no information on the chemical agent used in the attack.

After the 2013 attack, president Bashar Assad agreed to destroy his 1,300-ton stockpile of chemical weapons and "precursor chemicals" used to make weapons. Though they were destroyed, chlorine was not part of the chemical weapons agreement. Activists say they have seen dozens of chlorine gas attacks since then. According to the AP, the Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chlorine gas for attacks, accusing rebels of using it, instead.

However, doctors suspect it may be more than one kind of gas, as chlorine gas does not cause convulsions, which is a major symptom of Tuesday's gas attack. They suspect sarin may be one of the other gases.

A media activist told the AP that the local hospital is equipped to handle chemical attacks because of previous instances of chemical warfare.

The wounded have been "distributed around in rural Idlib," Mohammed Hassoun told the AP. "There are 18 critical cases here. They were unconscious, they had seizures and when oxygen was administered, they bled from the nose and mouth."

One Syrian man who lost his niece and her family in the attacks told the AP the attack happened early, as people were still in bed.

Idlib, Khan Shaykhun's procince, is controlled almost entirely by Syrian opposition and home to about 900,000 displaced Syrians, the AP reports. Because of its high concentration of displaced, opposition officials fear the government may be planning a concentrated attack on the area.</s>58 Die In Attack On Syrian Town Where Toxic Gas And Shelling Were Reported

Poison gas is suspected of augmenting an aerial bombardment of a rebel-held town in Syria's Idlib province Tuesday, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying at least 11 children are among the 58 people who were killed.

The attack was reportedly carried out in Khan Shaykhun, a town in northwest Syria that sits about halfway between Homs and Aleppo on the country's main north-south highway.

NPR's Alison Meuse reports for our Newscast unit from Beirut:

After the initial attacks early Tuesday, a hospital in Khan Shaykhun was also bombarded as it treated victims, according to Agence France-Presse.

The agency reports, "The entrance of the building was hit, bringing down rubble on top of medics who had earlier been seen dousing a steady stream of arrivals to wash away chemical residue."

The Observatory's report did not specify which government-allied force might have attacked the town. Russia's defense ministry "strongly dismissed" any allegation that its warplanes had carried out air strikes on Khan Shaykhun, Russian state-run TASS media reports.

An inquiry into the report has been begun by the European-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which reiterated Tuesday that it "strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances."

News of the use of toxic gas comes months after Syria's government was accused of using chlorine gas in its fight to retake Aleppo. In that instance, dozens of civilians were affected.</s>Poison gas is suspected of augmenting an aerial bombardment of a rebel-held town in Syria's Idlib province Tuesday, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying at least 11 children were among the 58 people who died.

The attack was reportedly carried out in Khan Shaykhun, a town in northwest Syria that sits about halfway between Homs and Aleppo on the country's main north-south highway.

NPR's Alison Meuse reports for our Newscast unit from Beirut:



"The opposition-leaning Syrian Observatory says warplanes carried out a number of strikes in the northern town, but that victims died of suffocation. Opposition activists published videos of purported victims, including one showing nine lifeless children. The U.N. finds Syrian government forces have used toxic chemicals in at least three attacks since 2014."



After the initial strikes early Tuesday, a hospital in Khan Shaykhun was also bombarded as it treated victims, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The entrance of the building was hit, bringing down rubble on top of medics who had earlier been seen dousing a steady stream of arrivals to wash away chemical residue," AFP reports.

The observatory's report did not specify which government-allied force might have attacked the town. Russia's defense ministry "strongly dismissed" any allegation that its warplanes had carried out air strikes on Khan Shaykhun, Russian state-run TASS media reports.

The European-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has begun an inquiry into reports that chemical weapons were used, and it reiterated Tuesday that it "strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances."

Reports about the use of toxic gas come months after Syria's government was accused of using chlorine gas in its fight to retake the city of Aleppo. In that instance, dozens of civilians were affected.</s>A Syrian child receives treatment following a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province on Tuesday. Warplanes carried out a suspected toxic gas attack that killed at least 35 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Start the conversation, or Read more at CBC News.</s>A Britain-based monitoring group claimed at least 58 people, including 11 children, had been killed in the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province by a gas attack. Warplanes carried out a suspected toxic gas attack in the rebel-held town of northwestern Syria on Tuesday. The Britain-based monitoring group was unable to confirm the nature of the substance used in the attack. It was unclear if the planes involved were Syrian.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “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.” Syria’s opposition National Coalition has accused President Bashar al-Assad’s government of the attack and demanded a UN investigation.

The gas attack happened before the start of a two-day conference on Syria’s future in Brussels by the European Union. Idlib province is mostly controlled by an alliance of rebels including former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, which fights the Assad regime.

More than 3,00,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now</s>A suspected gas attack, believed to be by Syrian government jets, killed at least 58 people including 11 children under the age of eight in the north-western province of Idlib on Tuesday, a war monitor and medical workers said.

A Syrian military source strongly denied the army had used any such weapons.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming out of their mouths, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described it as a sign of a gas attack.

The air strikes on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in the south of rebel-held Idlib, also wounded more than 60 people, said the Observatory, a British-based war monitoring group.

Mounzer Khalil, head of Idlib’s health authority, said the attack had killed more than 50 people and wounded 300.

Activists in northern Syria circulated pictures on social media showing a reported victim with foam around his mouth, and rescue workers hosing down almost naked children squirming on the floor.

The Syrian military source denied allegations that government forces had used chemical weapons, dismissing the accounts as rebel propaganda.

The army “has not and does not use them, not in the past and not in the future, because it does not have them in the first place,” the source said.

A joint inquiry for the United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog has previously accused government forces of toxic gas attacks.

Damascus has repeatedly denied using such weapons during the six-year-old war, which has killed hundreds of thousands and created the world’s worst refugee crisis.

Reuters photos showed people breathing through oxygen masks and wearing protection suits, while others carried the bodies of dead children, and corpses wrapped in blankets were lined up on the ground.

Warplanes continued to pound the town after the attack, including near a medical point where victims were being treated, the Observatory said.

Most of the town’s streets had become empty, a witness said.

The Syrian conflict pits President Bashar al-Assad’s government, helped by Russia and Iranian-backed militias, against a wide array of rebel groups, including some supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

Syrian and Russian air strikes have pounded various parts of Idlib, according to the Observatory, despite a ceasefire that Turkey and Russia brokered in December.

The province contains the largest populated area controlled by rebels – both nationalist Free Syrian Army groups and Islamist factions including the former al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Idlib’s population has ballooned with thousands of fighters and civilians shuttled out of Aleppo city and areas around Damascus that the government has retaken in recent months.

US air strikes since January have also hit several areas in the rural province where jihadists have a powerful presence.</s>Syrian activists: Several dead in Idlib chemical attack The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at 35, among them 10 children. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/2oxmEUF A Syrian child receives treatment following a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, on April 4, 2017.

Start the conversation, or Read more at USA Today.</s>BEIRUT: A suspected gas attack by Syrian government or Russian jets killed at least 35 people, including nine children, in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, a British-based war monitoring group said.

The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment. Damascus has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming out of their mouths, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described it as a sign of a gas attack.

The air strikes also wounded more than 60 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, the Observatory said.

Activists in northern Syria circulated pictures on social media showing a reported victim with foam around his mouth, and rescue workers hosing down almost naked children squirming on the floor.

A Syrian military source said last week allegations that government forces were using chemical weapons were "devoid of truth".

Pro-opposition Orient News television said the attack on Tuesday killed 50 people and injured more than 150.
A toxic gas attack, allegedly by Syrian warplanes, kills at least 83 and injures many more in rebel-held Khan Shaykhun, Idlib.