Suspected gas attack on Syria's rebel-held Idlib kills at least 58: Observatory

[CPUd]

Suspected gas attack on Syria's rebel-held Idlib kills at least 58: Observatory



By Ellen Francis | BEIRUT
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 northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, a war monitor and medical workers in the rebel-held area 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.

"This morning, at 6:30 a.m., warplanes targeted Khan Sheikhoun with gases, believed to be sarin and chlorine," said Mounzer Khalil, head of Idlib's health authority, adding that the attack had killed more than 50 people and wounded 300.

"Most of the hospitals in Idlib province are now overflowing with wounded people," he told a news conference in Idlib.

Warplanes later struck near a medical point where victims of the attack were being treated, the Observatory said and civil defense workers said.

The civil defense, also known as the White Helmets - a rescue service that operates in opposition areas of Syria - said jets struck one of its centers in the area and the nearby medical point.

It would mark the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of civilians in Ghouta near Damascus in August 2013. Western states said the Syrian government was responsible for that attack. Damascus blamed it on rebels.

The Syrian military source on Tuesday 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. France called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting about Tuesday's suspected attack.

Reuters photographs 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.

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

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

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

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Russian planes had not carried out air strikes on Idlib.

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

Turkish President Tay yip Eroding and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the suspected attack, Turkish presidential sources said. They said the two leaders had also emphasized the importance of maintaining the ceasefire.

POPULATION BALLOONED

Idlib province contains the largest populated area controlled by the anti-Assad 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.

U.S. air strikes since January have also hit several areas in the rural province where jihadists have a powerful presence.

The United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been investigating whether Damascus is adhering to its commitments under the 2013 agreement, which averted the threat of U.S.-led military intervention.

In a report in October last year, the inquiry said that government forces used chemical weapons at least three times in 2014-2015 and that Islamic State used mustard gas in 2015.

Following the 2013 Ghouta attack, the Syrian government joined the international Chemical Weapons Convention under a U.S.-Russian deal.

The government, which denied its forces were behind the Ghouta attack, also agreed to hand over its declared stockpile of 1,300 tonnes of toxic weaponry and dismantle its chemical weapons program under international supervision.

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

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idlib-idUSKBN1760IB

 

[CPUd]

 

[Demigod]

After seeing this post not only am I certain that the attack was a falls flag operation, but also that you and all of your kind are nothing more than just trolls/shills who spread pre-designated propaganda. By all accounts you should be a person interested in USA-politics and anti-Trump . I have never seen you take any interest in Syria ,comment on it until today when the propaganda blitz around this situation began.

 

[TER]

After seeing this post not only am I certain that the attack was a falls flag operation, but also that you and all of your kind are nothing more than just trolls/shills who spread pre-designated propaganda. By all accounts you should be a person interested in USA-politics and anti-Trump . I have never seen you take any interest in Syria ,comment on it until today when the propaganda blitz around this situation began.

I agree 100% and look forward to the day this troll is banned.

 

[TER]

Anything to take focus away from Susan Rice.

 

[CPUd]

https://twitter.com/jamesdenselow/status/849188912241225728

 

[Dr.3D]

Looks to me like the CIA is at it again.

 

[AZJoe]

Its de ja vu all over again. While the war propagandists have persistence, they certainly lack in creativity - repeating the same old mantra.

Well let’s see, the last allegations of a gas attack turned out to be a false flag committed by Washington’s very own “moderate” “rebels” with gas shipped in from Turkey.

Washington was willing to immediately go to war and invade Syria on the allegation.

Did Washington apologize for its false allegations and threats? NO

While Washington was ready to start a war on the allegation against Syria, were they willing to do the same to its “moderate” rebels once it was exposed who the real culprits were? - NO. All that outrage and demand to make Assad pay immediately vanished--nothing but the sounds of silence and crickets once the culprits were exposed to be Washington’s funded dogs of war. They only “care” about Syrian people if they can exploit it with lies to fulfill foreign regime change hegemony, and actually destroying the lives of millions of Syrians in the process no less.

Did Washington stop supporting, arming and training its “moderate” terrorists, the same that supplied a ready supply of recruits and arms making their way directly to ISIS? - NO. They continued to back and arm and fund and train the very same groups responsible for the gas attack.

Why? Because Washington does not give a rat’s ass worth of care about the Syrian people. If they did they would not have fostered a foreign force of “moderate” rebels to stage an overthrow of the government resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and impoverishment of millions. They would not be arming and directing Saudi Salafi Arabia in the genocide of Yemen. They would not have obliterated Libya and making more millions into refugees. They would not have armed the extremist factions [from which Isis was founded] in Libya to stage a manufactured coup there.

Any selective outrage by the Washington neocon establishment and its PR mouthpieces WAPO and NYT must be viewed in light of their entire pattern and practice of lies and deceit--nothing more than a manufactured pretext to feign false outrage for MIC war and regime change hegemony.

 

[Demigod]

There can be no standard war against Syria as long as Russia is there, they initially thought that the Russians will bankrupt them self's in Syria given time but the Russian intervention is waging war on the cheap as it gets so no chance of that happening. So in my opinion they are just setting up the playing field for the second war that is coming. ISIS and HTS (Al-Quaeda in Syria ) will fall by the end of the year that is clear to everyone , the goal here is to discredit the Syrians and the Iraqis as much as they can so they do not get any of the recognition for doing that ,while the Kurds will be praised on all media. After ISIS and HTS fall the second war will start between the Kurds and Iraqis/Syrians.

The Kurds are the perfect puppets ,without outside control they always fall to infighting so if they ever get too arrogant they can be quickly dealt with. But on the other hand they are also have the perfect casus belli ( freedom ) for more conflict. That is why the US is pushing the Kurds to conquer non-Kurdish territories so much , so to make them a viable force that can self sustain. After that they will start declaring independence across the entire region starting a bloodbath that will last for years if not a decade weakening Syria,Iraq,Iran and Turkey, Israel in that kind of a situation may even decide to take their shot at dealing with Hezbolah in Lebanon again. That is also why I think the Turks have started to act more and more crazy, they are seeing the writing on the wall but their options are almost non existent.

 

[CPUd]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/849254249825533953

 

[sparebulb]

C-Pud and NBC "News"

 

[timosman]

 

[pcosmar]

Looks to me like the CIA is at it again.

Last time it was Saudi Funded and shipped through Turkey.

I wonder if they are making crap inhouse,, or imported.

 

[Dr.3D]

Last time it was Saudi Funded and shipped through Turkey.

I wonder if they are making crap inhouse,, or imported.

Well, it looks like an obvious frame up of Assad. Figure out who doesn't like him and why and the trail should lead to the culprit.

 

[pcosmar]

Well, it looks like an obvious frame up of Assad. Figure out who doesn't like him and why and the trail should lead to the culprit.

McCain and co.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Syria admits to bombing the area but claims they must have hit a rebel chemical stockpile. Video claims to show the bomb hit in the middle of the street in front of a bakery. http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-1.781520

Only two air-forces are currently operating there, those Russia and Syria. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed that it hadn’t been carrying out missions in the area, but any operations over northwestern Syria are coordinated and carried out with Russia which has controlled the airspace for the last year and a half. Syria admits to having attacked “rebel” targets and claims the deaths were caused when of its bombs hit a “rebel factory” manufacturing poison gas.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-1.781520

 

[TER]

Syria admits to bombing the area but claims they must have hit a rebel chemical stockpile. Video claims to show the bomb hit in the middle of the street in front of a bakery. http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-1.781520

I don't have a haaretz subscription so I can't read the fake news article you just posted. Interesting that you have a subscription however. Actually, not that surprising.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Not subscribed. Found it with google. They are not the only source reporting it.



Fox News: http://fox17online.com/2017/04/04/suspected-gas-attack-in-syria-reportedly-kills-dozens/

In an apparent reference to the crisis, two state-run Syrian media outlets reported an explosion at a “rebel poison gas factory” in the countryside of Idlib province, implying that it was an accident related to rebels building chemical weapons.

Idlib province is largely controlled by an alliance of rebel forces and is regularly targeted in airstrikes by the Syrian government and its ally, Russia.

 

[TER]

Not subscribed. Found it with google.

Interesting, can't see the article because it says I need a subscription. Do you have a source for this fake news article somewhere else? Maybe the Washington Post or Huffington Post?

 

[CPUd]

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/849343657522212864