1000 KILLED BY CHEMICAL WEAPON IN SYRIA

• US, Britain, France in rage, as UN begins probe

• Nigeria yet to react over killings

he Syrian civil war took a new twist yesterday as some 1000 people were yesterday killed with chemical weapons used by the government forces loyal to President Assad on the outskirts of Damascus, with many being treated in mosques and other makeshift places.  And consequently, the United States, Britain and France have risen in anger, demanding the United Nations probe of the incident.

But efforts to get the Federal Government’s reaction to the incident proved difficult as the spokesman of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ogbole Amedu Ode, told Daily Newswatch on phone that he was on leave and as such, “I will not be able to comment on the issue.”

Also, Director, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, said though he was aware of the killings, he would have to get the permission of the minister before he could speak. He, however, promised to contact Daily Newswatch as soon as he received the go-ahead. But as at the time of filing this story, no response was received from the office.

Also, calls put across to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi, were not answered and the text message was not replied as at the time of filing the story. However, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who expressed shock over the incident, has called for an emergency meeting in order for the global organisation to establish the veracity of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces.

The UN has also confirmed that its chief chemical weapons investigator is in discussions with the Syrian government over the allegations. United Nations chemical weapons inspectors had earlier arrived in Syria on Sunday with a mandate to investigate three locations where chemical weapons were allegedly used, including the northern town of Khan al-Assal, where some 26 people were killed in March.

However, the Syrian activists insisted that rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early yesterday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, while the Syrian Army said the accusations have been fabricated to cover up rebel losses. The main opposition alliance claimed more than 1,000 people were killed by the attacks.

Activist networks also reported death tolls in the hundreds, but these could not be independently confirmed. It is also not clear how many died in the bombardment of the sites and how many deaths were due to any exposure to toxic substances. The attack reportedly took place as part of a heavy government bombardment of the region surrounding Damascus, where government forces have been trying to drive out rebel forces.

Residents of the capital said mortars later hit government-held areas in Faris Khoury Street and the Malki district, where Assad has a residence. There were no reports of injuries. Heavy air strikes continued throughout the day against the rebel suburbs of Mouadamiya and Jobar. Footage uploaded to YouTube from the scene by activists showed many people being treated in makeshift hospitals.

The videos also showed victims, including many children, having convulsions. Others were apparently immobile and had difficulty breathing. The number of casualties was much higher than in previous allegations of chemical weapons attacks, reports said. The BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, said many will ask why the government would want to use such weapons at a time when inspectors were in the country and the military had been doing well militarily in the area around Damascus.

Some would suspect that the footage had been fabricated, but the videos would be difficult to fake, he added. ITV News Middle East Correspondent, Geraint Vincent, said the simultaneous emergence of web video from different sources and the plausible scenes involving children in the footage means “on the balance of probabilities we are talking about a genuine incident” in Syria rather than a hoax.

Speaking from Tel Aviv, he added: “The question now is: how will the international community respond? So far, we’ve had condemnation of the use of any chemical weapons anywhere (and) we’ve had a demand that the UN team that’s in Syria at the moment be allowed to visit this site. “But so far these pictures have not been powerful enough to bring about any kind of promise or any kind of commitment that action will be taken to prevent the use of chemical weapons in Syria.”

A Syrian journalist has given ITV News a tearful account of the death of one of his friends who had rushed to help bring casualties to a field hospital in the Syrian capital following an alleged chemical gas attack.

Humam Husari, speaking via Skype from the Damascus suburb, Duma, said a gas mask that was later found in his friend’s car was probably used to help save a child.

Prof Alexander Kekule, of the Institute for Medical Microbiology at Halle University in Germany, told the BBC that one of the videos – although of poor quality – was consistent with the aftermath of an attack with a chemical agent. But he added that none of the patients showed typical signs of sarin or other organophosphorous nerve agents, or signs of blistering agents.

“It also cannot be totally excluded that the whole video is a political staging. In this case, however, it would be a very good one,” he said. “Taken together, the best guess is that this is an authentic video of the aftermath of an attack with some incapacitating chemical agent.”

Ghazwan Bwidany, a doctor treating the injured, told the BBC the main symptom, especially among children, was suffocation, as well as salivating and blurred vision. “We don’t have the capability to treat all this number of people,” he said. “We’re putting them in mosques, in schools. We are lacking medical supplies now, especially atropine, which is the antidote for chemical weapons.”

The Damascus Media Office monitoring centre said 150 bodies were counted in Hammouriya, 100 in Kfar Batna, 67 in Saqba, 61 in Douma, 76 in Mouadamiya and 40 in Irbib. A nurse at Douma Emergency Collection facility, Bayan Baker, earlier told Reuters the death toll collated from medical centres was at least 213.

“Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils constricted, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,” the nurse said. Exposure to sarin gas causes pupils in the eyes to shrink to pinpoint sizes and foaming at the lips. And in their reactions to the killings, the US, UK and France have all called for the inspectors to examine this latest incident.

“The United States is deeply concerned by reports that hundreds of Syrian civilians have been killed in an attack by Syrian government forces, including by the use of chemical weapons, near Damascus earlier today,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

“We are formally requesting that the United Nations urgently investigate this new allegation. The UN investigative team, which is currently in Syria, is prepared to do so, and that is consistent with its purpose and mandate.” UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, on his part, said if confirmed, the attacks would mark a “shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria.”

While the Arab League and European Union asked the inspectors to go to the site, the the EU reiterated that any use of chemical weapons, by any side in Syria, would be totally unacceptable, according to a spokesperson for EU foreign Affairs Head, Catherine Ashton. But the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the reports had emerged just as the UN chemical weapons inspection team had arrived in Syria, saying that “this makes us think that we are once again dealing with a premeditated provocation”.

Source: Daily Newswatch