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. 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."
A toxic gas attack, allegedly by Syrian warplanes, kills at least 83 and injures many more in rebel-held Khan Shaykhun, Idlib.