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Around 100 Syrians struggle to breathe after 'toxic' attack

WION Web Team
Damascus, SyriaUpdated: Nov 26, 2018, 10:05 AM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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The civilians complained of breathing after rebels fired "toxic gas" into the northwestern province of Idlib.

A day after nine civilians were killed in a planned buffer zone around Syria's last major rebel bastion, around 100 Syrians were hospitalised on Sunday as they complained of breathing difficulties.

The civilians complained of breathing after rebels fired "toxic gas" into  Aleppo.

The state news agency SANA reported "107 cases of breathing difficulties" in an updated toll on Sunday. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said a total of 94 people were hospitalised, but most had been discharged and the 31 cases that remained were not critical.

The Syrian regime shelling killed nine civilians including seven children on Saturday in a planned buffer zone in the regime-held city.

Later in the evening, in neighbouring Aleppo which is under Syrian regime control, official media accused the rebels of launching an attack with "toxic gas".

Regional head of health services, Ziad Hajj Taha, said it was a "probable" chlorine attack.

Such accusations against the rebels in Aleppo were levelled in the past too. On other occasions, the Syrian regime has been accused of using chemical weapons against rebel strongholds, which it has always denied.

Since 2014, the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for over 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number much higher.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

(With inputs from AFP)