Assad forces accused of gas attacks

Syrians gather in a street that was hit by shelling, in the predominantly Christian and Armenian neighborhood of Suleimaniyeh, Aleppo, Syria. Photo / AP

The Syrian Government has been accused of again using chemical weapons against civilians as fighting intensifies with fresh rebel attacks in the north of the country.

Helicopters deployed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad dropped barrel bombs containing gas canisters filled with lethal chemicals in and around the city of Idlib, west of Aleppo, as it was assaulted and later captured by jihadi forces led by the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra last month, according to Human Rights Watch.

The group said yesterday that it had evidence strongly suggesting that toxic chemicals dropped by helicopters between March 16-31 affected 206 people, with one attack killing six people, including three children.

The accusation came as rebels in Aleppo blew up a Syrian Air Force intelligence headquarters by exploding a powerful bomb packed into a tunnel dug secretly beneath it. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that more than 20 government troops and fighters were killed and wounded in the blast, along with 13 rebels. The rebels are also making advances north of Aleppo, where they earlier repelled a government counter-offensive.

Rescue workers and doctors in Idlib said that the bombs alleged to have contained the chemicals did not detonate when they landed, but there was a strong smell of chlorine.

Dr Mohammed Ghaleb Tirani, the director of a field hospital in Sarmin, 10km southeast of Idlib city, treated six members of the Talib family, including three infants, found in a basement.

He said: "The children were foaming at the mouth, they were suffocating, then their hearts stopped. The parents had trouble breathing. We tried to treat them, but they died as well."

Muhammad Yazan, a local activist, told HRW that he had gone to where two barrel bombs had landed in a field on March 16 but there was no explosion. Soon afterwards, 30 civilians and 40 rebel fighters were affected and sought treatment in hospital. The Syrian Air Force is notorious for responding to rebel attacks by indiscriminate bombing of any area it believes to be in rebel hands. The barrel bombs normally contain explosives and scrap metal, but in this case there is strong evidence that chlorine gas canisters were employed.