Chemical Nightmare Hits Aleppo: Terrorists’ Unprecedented Escalation
Local Editor
Syria terrorists escalated the ground attacks to an unprecedented level.
Covered and armed by US, France, and Britain; and funded by the Gulf money, the terrorist groups in Aleppo crossed the red line: They used the chemical rockets.
The explosion of the rocket claimed the lives of 31 people, while 110 citizens were injured, many of them in critical condition. 10 Soldiers were among the dead in the chemical attack.
An doctor in Aleppo's hospital said the attack was either "phosphorus or poison" but did not elaborate.
A young girl on a stretcher wept as she said: "My chest closed up. I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe. ... We saw people falling dead to the floor. My father fell, he fell and now we don't know where he is. God curse them, I hope they die."
A Reuters photographer said victims he had visited in Aleppo hospitals were suffering from breathing problems and that people had said they could smell chlorine after the attack.
He quoted victims at the University of Aleppo hospital and the al-Rajaa hospital as saying people were dying in the streets and in their houses.
"The missile fell in a region populated by civilians on a 300- m distance from the post of the Syrian Arab army soldiers," the Ministry said in the letters.
It added that after the missile was exploded, a dense smoke has occurred which led to direct faint cases among citizens who were subjected to inhale those gases.
For its part, the Syrian Health Ministry called upon the UN and its health and humanitarian organizations to pay attention to the flagrant crimes committed by terrorists against defenseless civilians, demanding that they pressure the countries that are openly arming and funding armed groups to stop their support immediately.
In parallel, the Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi described militants' use of chemical weapons as the "first act" by the so-called opposition interim government.
The Syrian minister also said that Turkey and Qatar, which support militants fighting, bore "legal, moral and political responsibility" for the chemical attack in the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday.
Similarly, Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Meqdad, said his government would send a letter to the UN Security Council "calling on it to handle its responsibilities and clarify a limit to these crimes of terrorism and those that support it inside Syrian Arab Republic".
He warned that the violence that had engulfed Syria was a regional threat. "This is rather a starting point from which the danger will spread to the entire region, if not the entire world," he said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the use of chemical weapons by "the Syrian opposition" as "a very serious precedent".
"This incident constitutes a very worrying and serious development in the context of the crisis in Syria," the Ministry said in a statement published on its website.
It also expressed Russia's deep concern "over weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of gunmen, which further aggravates the situation and pushes the confrontation in the country to a new level."
For his part, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon remains convinced that the use of chemical weapons by any party in Syria would constitute an outrageous crime.
Ban and Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, "shared deep concern about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria," the UN said, in a statement following their conversation.
The two men pledged to "maintain close contact as developments unfold."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was looking carefully at all allegations, but said the Obama administration is "deeply skeptical" of any claims emanating from the regime. He said President Barack Obama believes any chemical weapons use would be unacceptable.
"This is an issue that has been made very clear by the president to be of great concern to us," Carney said, adding that if the Syrian regime does use such weapons, "there will be consequences."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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