Beirut: Videos of lifeless bodies of at least 70 civilians mostly children and women, some of them with foam at the mouth were circulated on social media following the suspected chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta.
More families were found suffocated from the poisonous gas in around 24 hours in their houses and shelters on Sunday. The number of victims is increasing dramatically as there’s no medical infrastructures in the city, all of it went out of service.
Volunteer rescue force the White Helmets tweeted graphic images showing several bodies in basements following the attack on Saturday, reports the BBC.
Another Video showing cases of suffocation among civilians, mostly children and women, following the chemical attack against the civilians in #Douma city. #AssadHitsDoumaWithChemicals pic.twitter.com/ItEpVLq5zM
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 8, 2018
Several medical, monitoring and activist groups reported details of a chemical attack, but figures vary and what happened was still being determined.
More videos from one of the clinics treating exposed. Children given asthma inhalers, doused in water. Medical services, overstretched and themselves targets, can't cope. pic.twitter.com/wVAWa5gFMW
— Tobias Schneider (@tobiaschneider) April 7, 2018
The pro-opposition Ghouta Media Centre said over 75 people had “suffocated” while a further thousand people had suffered.
It blamed a barrel bomb allegedly dropped by a helicopter which it said contained sarin, a toxic nerve agent.
The Union of Medical Relief Organisations, a US-based charity that works with Syrian hospitals, told the BBC that the Damascus Rural Specialty Hospital had confirmed 70 deaths.
The first video for the massacre in #Douma by the Chemical weapons, 40 were killed and 500 still suffocating in bad medical circumstances. Assad attacking more than 100K civilians in Douma. pic.twitter.com/fA0uyRqhrp
— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) April 7, 2018
She told the BBC that there were reports of people being treated for symptoms including convulsions and foaming of the mouth, consistent with nerve or mixed nerve and chlorine gas exposure.
The Syrian government has denied the allegations. State news agency SANA cited an “official source” saying the reports were a “blatant attempt to hinder the army’s advance” into the “collapsing terrorist” stronghold, reports CNN.
SANA said the Syrian Arab Army “does not need to use any chemical materials as claimed by terrorists’ media affiliates”.
Cases of suffocation between the civilians in residential neighborhood in the city #Douma after it was targeted by poison gas “Chlorine”. @SyriaCivilDefe teams are working to inspect the place and transfer the injured to medical centers. pic.twitter.com/07FrrKns31
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 7, 2018
In response to the alleged attack, a US State Department official told CNN: “We have seen multiple, very disturbing reports… The (Syrian) regime’s history of using chemical weapons against its own people (is) not in dispute…
“As we’ve said, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons. Russia’s protection of the (President Bashar al) Assad regime and failure to stop the use of chemical weapons in Syria calls into question its commitment to resolving the overall crisis.”
The sarin nerve agent has been used in Syria before.
A glimpse of the @SyriaCivilDefe teams work in #Douma during the evacuation of number of wounded, including children and women under none stop aerial bombardment and the barrel bombs on the city. #EasternGhouta pic.twitter.com/i8Pv0GyTDj
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 7, 2018
In April 2017, more than 80 people were killed in a sarin attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun — an attack that prompted the US to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase.
In August 2013, rockets containing sarin were fired at rebel-held areas of Eastern Ghouta, killing hundreds.
Since February 18, the regime’s Ghouta offensive has killed more than 1,600 civilians.
The regime has used a combination of a fierce military onslaught and two negotiated withdrawals to empty out 95 percent of the enclave near Damascus, but rebels are still entrenched in its largest town of Douma.
With agencies input