NEW YORK
Only a chlorine attack could have caused the deaths of six people and poisoned 70 others in an opposition-held town in northwestern Syria earlier this week, a medical human rights organization said Wednesday.
Citing local doctors in the region, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that Monday’s attack took place near the town of Sarmin in Idlib province, where locals reportedly witnessed helicopters dropping "barrels that released a suffocating gas on impact."
The symptoms described by medical staff at a local hospital indicated the presence of chlorine poisoning, the statement said. "There were no signs suggestive of another class of toxic products."
Reports of the attack followed a March 6 Security Council resolution that condemned the use of chlorine attacks in Syria. Opposition groups accused the government of carrying out the attack.
"We saw people arriving at the hospital from a neighboring village," said the director of the hospital, as quoted in the statement. "Among them, there was a family — three young children with their parents. They were in very serious condition and dying. Their parents were able to speak but they were having a lot of difficulty breathing."
The entire family died in the hospital, while the grandmother of the children died of asphyxiation before reaching medical assistance, the statement said.
"Attacking a village and its civilian population with chlorine shows once again that the Syrian conflict knows no limits," said Mego Terzian, president of the Doctors Without Borders.
Health workers in the Sarmin hospital treated 70 patients, including residents of a neighboring village who were attacked by barrel bombs and voluntary first aid workers who were affected when they arrived to provide assistance, the statement said.
"There were 20 patients in serious condition, agitated, foaming blood at the mouth, and displaying skin rashes," said another doctor.
The Syrian civil war, which entered a fifth year this month, has claimed more than 220,000 lives, according to the UN.
