The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that an air attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun, in the central province of Idlib, Syria, used the deadly chemical Sarin. The attack resulted in the death of an estimated 67, including children, and an estimated 200 who suffered respiratory problems and other symptoms.
Idlib province is controlled by an alliance of rebels including former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front. It is regularly targeted in strikes by the Assad regime and by Russian air force warplanes.
Medical sources in Khan Sheikhun reported symptoms among the affected including fainting, vomiting and foaming at the mouth.
Do u still doubt that is being used on us? Non-reactive pinpoint pupils! We have samples. Will anyone care!? Who will stop it? pic.twitter.com/WmhDZgLVA6
— Dr Shajul Islam (@DrShajulIslam) April 4, 2017
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says its sources determine whose planes carry out the raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions.
Photographs show White Helmets rescue volunteers using hoses to wash down the injured, some of whom had white foam around their mouths.
The nerve agent Sarin is a colorless, odorless liquid, used as a chemical weapon of mass destruction. Production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed in April 1997, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance. In June 1994, the UN Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament destroyed stockpiles of sarin under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) concerning the disposal of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
Sarin is lethal even at very low concentrations, resulting in death within one to ten minutes after direct inhalation, due to suffocation from lung muscle paralysis. People who absorb a non-lethal dose, but do not receive immediate medical treatment, may suffer permanent neurological damage.