More than 100 people were wounded in a suspected toxic gas attack in Syria’s Aleppo late on Saturday. A health official said was the first such assault in the city. Chemical Assad gasses Aleppo, then he accuses opposition forces for his act. The opposition rebels have no gas or mechanism capabilities to deliver it.
To escape another PR disaster or punishment, the Assad regime and its ally Russia blamed the attack on insurgents. The rebel officials denied the accusation citing Assad history of gassing his own people. Chemical Assad gasses Aleppo.
The shells spread a strong stench and caused dozens of people breathing problems in Aleppo, which is under government control, a monitoring group said.
ASSAD EXCUSE TO ATTACK IDLIB
By gassing Syrians, Chemical Assad has the excuse to ignore the agreement struck on the Idlib Province. He immediately dispatched warplanes to strike rebels for the first time since Russia and Turkey agreed a buffer zone there in September.
State news agency SANA said on Sunday that 107 people were injured, including children. It marks the highest such casualty toll in Aleppo since government forces and their allies clawed back the city from rebels nearly two years ago.
Russia’s defense ministry accused insurgents on Sunday of firing shells filled with chlorine gas at Aleppo from the rebel stronghold of Idlib.
Patients suffered difficulty breathing, eye inflammation, shivering and fainting, he said. Hospitals had discharged many people overnight.
STRETCHERS AND OXYGEN MASKS
“The explosive (shells) contain toxic gases that led to choking among civilians,” Aleppo police chief Issam al-Shilli told state media.
Pictures and footage on SANA showed medical workers carrying patients on stretchers and helping them with oxygen masks.
State media said the army hit back at militants near the city but did not elaborate. Syria’s foreign ministry urged the U.N. Security Council to condemn and punish the attack Assad carried out secretly. Attack, accuse, incite.
REBELS ACCUSE ASSAD
Abdel-Salam Abdel-Razak, an official from the Nour el-Din al-Zinki insurgent faction, said rebels did not own chemical weapons or have the capacity to produce them.
He tweeted:
The criminal regime, under Russian instructions, is trying to accuse the rebels of using toxic substances in Aleppo. This is purely a lie.
Chemical Assad drops poison gas on Aleppo then accuses rebels for his act. Chemical Assad has over 1,200 incidents of gassing civilians under his belt while the rebels (Except ISIS) have none.
Abu Omar, a Failaq al-Sham spokesman, accused Damascus of trying to create “a malicious charade” as a pretext to attack rebel towns.
Assad shelling of Idlib on Saturday killed two women and seven children in a village.
The Russian-Turkish deal in September had staved off an expected army offensive against the Idlib region, including nearby parts of Aleppo and Hama provinces.
The dominant force among an array of factions holding sway in Idlib is Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist alliance led by fighters formerly linked to al-Qaeda. No ISIS fighters are stationed in Idlib.
A past OPCW inquiry found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an April 2017 attack and has also used chlorine several times. It also blamed Islamic State militants for using mustard gas.
Even with irrefutable evidence, Chemical Assad’s government has repeatedly denied using poison gas during the Syrian civil war.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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