SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPON ATTACK KILLED 70 PEOPLE

An image by Edlib Media Center, Syrian anti-government activist group, rocked the world as reports said that a suspected chemical weapon attack killed at least 70, including 20 children, in rebel-held northwestern Syria. “There were also 17 women among the dead and the death toll could rise further because there are people missing,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. Heartbreaking images of desperate patient, weeping children and dead civilians in Syria are, unfortunately, too familiar.

If confirmed, it would be one of the worst chemical attacks since Syria’s civil war began six years ago. It was the third claim of a chemical attack in just over a week in Syria. The previous two were reported in Hama province, in an area not far from Khan Sheikhoun. A few hours later, Syrian warplanes launched another airstrike on one of the medical clinics where victims of the first attack were being treated, the The New York Times reported.

World leaders across the world, including US president Donald Trump and British foreign secretary Boris Johnson, went on to record to say that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was “undoubtedly” behind the heinous act. Trump called on to Russia and Iran and asked them to stop recurrence of what many are calling a war crime. Assad, who reportedly renounced all chemical weapons four years ago said that it was not his government which attacked the civilians as he has done every time chemical weapons have been used in Syria. Syria’s opposition also blamed President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, saying the attack cast doubt on the future of peace talks. The army denied any involvement in a statement blaming “terrorist groups” for using “chemical and toxic substances”.

As the Syrian military accused the rebels for causing the “war crime”, reports said that the magnitude of Tuesday’s attack was evident that the Syrian government carried out the attacks. “...only the Syrian military had the ability and the motive to carry out an aerial attack like the one that struck the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun,” The New York Times report said. According to this article in Vox, there are no good guys in the ongoing and seemingly unending civil war in Syria, as even the rebels have been accused of atrocious war crimes. However, Tuesday’s attack or similar attacks in the past couldn’t have been carried out without the assistance from the ruling government.

Photos and video emerging from Khan Sheikhoun, located south of the provincial capital of Idlib, showed the limp bodies of children and adults. Some were struggling to breathe; others appeared to be foaming at the mouth. Chemical weapons have killed hundreds of people since the start of Syria’s civil war six years ago, with the United Nations blaming three attacks on the Syrian government and a fourth on the Islamic State. Syrian rebels and opposition activists said that pro-government forces have used chemical weapons and bombs containing chlorine on numerous occasions.