Syrian regime strikes targets in Hama with chlorine gas

By Khaled Suleiman

HAMA, Syria

The Syrian regime on Thursday carried out a chlorine gas attack on opposition-held parts of the Hama countryside, affecting some 100 civilian residents of the area, according to a local medical source.

Regime helicopters targeted the town of Al-Latamna and the village of Zawr with barrel bombs containing chlorine gas, Mohamed Elwan, a Hama-based doctor, told Anadolu Agency.

The gas, he said, had adversely affected roughly 100 residents of the opposition-held town and village, some of whom, he asserted, were in critical condition.

"Local residents are showing symptoms of chlorine gas exposure, including vomiting, dizziness, blurred vision and shortness of breath," Elwan said.

On Wednesday, Syrian regime forces carried out a similar chlorine gas attack on the Al-Qaboun district northeast of capital Damascus that reportedly affected 35 civilian residents.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to UN figures.