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| Alleged Syria Chemical Attack: Is the Idlib Deal in Peril? |
| 2018-11-27 |
| [An Nahar] A 10-week-old truce deal in northern Syria looked as precarious as ever Monday after an alleged chemical attack, which has already drawn retaliatory raids despite its origins being unclear. The exact circumstances of the purported attack on three districts of the government-held city of Aleppo Saturday are murky and bitterly disputed. In little doubt, however, is the strain the incident will put on an already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib. WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY? Syrian state media accused "terrorists" of carrying out a "toxic gas" attack in Aleppo late Saturday, using a term that it uses to mean both rebels and jihadists. State news agency SANA said 107 people were hospitalized with breathing difficulties, after what health official Ziad Hajj Taha said it was a "probable" chlorine attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of people affected slightly lower at 94, and said over half had been discharged by the next morning. The Britannia-based monitor, which says it gathers its information from people inside Syria, said its sources reported "the smell of chlorine". An AFP news hound saw dozens of civilians carried or helped into a hospital, appearing to be dizzy and breathing with difficulty. Staff gave them oxygen masks. The regime has been blamed for the most deadly chemical weapon attacks in Syria's seven-year war, but official media has recently accused fighters in Idlib of planning a chemical attack. |
| Posted by:Fred |