Daily Times

A chemical attack on a rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta killed dozens of people, a medical relief organisation and a rescue service said, and Washington said the reports – if confirmed – would demand an immediate international response.

Medical relief organisation Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said 41 people had been killed, with other reports putting the death toll much higher. The civil defence rescue service, which operates in rebel-held areas of Syria, put it as high as 150 in a report on one of its Twitter feeds.

The Russian-backed Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack as the reports began circulating on Saturday night and said rebels in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma were in a state of collapse and spreading false news.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The lifeless bodies of around a dozen children, women and men, some of them with foam at the mouth, were shown in one video circulated by activists. “Douma city, April 7 … there is a strong smell here,” a voice can be heard saying.

The U.S. State Department said reports of mass casualties from an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma were “horrifying” and would, if confirmed, “demand an immediate response by the international community”. President Bashar al-Assad has won back control of nearly all of eastern Ghouta in a Russian-backed military campaign that began in February, leaving just Douma in rebel hands. After a lull of days, government forces began bombarding Douma again on Friday.

The offensive in Ghouta has been one of the deadliest of the seven-year-long war, killing more than 1,600 civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory said it could not confirm if chemical weapons had been used in the attack on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” for a chemical attack against a besieged rebel-held town in Syria where medical aid groups reported dozens of people were killed by poison gas.

The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack and Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, called the reports bogus.

A joint statement by the medical relief organisation Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defence service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died in the attack late on Saturday in the town of Douma. Others put the toll even higher.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Turkey condemned the use of chemical weapons in Douma, a rebel-held town in Syria’s eastern Ghouta, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

A chemical attack on a rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta has killed dozens of people, medical services reported, and Washington said the reports – if confirmed – would demand an immediate international response.

“We strongly condemn the attack, which there is strong suspicion was carried out by the regime, whose record on use of chemical weapons is known by the international community,” the ministry said.

Turkey, which has been working with allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a political resolution to the crisis in Syria, called for international action against the attacks in Douma.

“The Syrian regime must give account for the attacks in various regions of the country at different times,” a spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said.

Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria after a suspected attack in an opposition holdout in Eastern Ghouta killed dozens of people.

“Terrible news comes to us from Syria with dozens of victims, many of them women and children … so many people are struck by the effects of the chemical substances in the bombs,” the pope told thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square.

“There is not a good war and a bad one, and nothing, nothing can justify the use of such devices of extermination against defenceless people and populations,” he added.

Renewed air strikes have hit Douma, the last rebel-held town near Damascus, where first responders accused forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of using “poisonous chlorine gas” in attacks on Saturday.

“Pray for political and military leaders to choose the other path, that of negotiation, the only one that can bring peace that is not that of death and destruction,” the pope said.

Published in Daily Times, April 9^th 2018.