Syrian activists and opposition members on Tuesday claimed that Government helicopters carried out a chlorine gas attack on a northern town overnight, killing six people, an accusation that was promptly dismissed by a military official. Two activist groups, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the local Coordination Committees said the attack late Monday night targeted the town of Sarmin in northwestern Idlib province.
They said that apart from killing six, dozens of people suffered from breathing difficulties in the gas attack. The two groups collect their data from a network of activists on the ground. A military official in the capital, Damascus, denied the claim and blamed rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad for the attack. An opposition official in the area of Sarmin said there were two attacks, the first targeting rebels that injured 20 people, mostly men, while the second hit a residential area. He said Waref Mohammed Taleb, his wife, mother and three little children were the six people killed.
The military and the opposition official both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters. The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said that in the Sarmin attack, helicopter gunships dropped four “barrel bombs,” of which two had chlorine gas. The coalition and the opposition official said about 70 people suffered breathing problems.
Amateur videos posted online and claiming to be from the attack show three children lying on hospital beds as medics try to assist them. The footage shows an apparently dazed child slowly moving his head while lying on a hospital bed. The lifeless body of a woman lies on another bed. The video, which could not be independently confirmed, appeared genuine and corresponded to other reports of the events depicted.