day, a monitor, medics and rescue workers in the rebel-held area said.
A Syrian
military source strongly denied the army had used any such weapons.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the attack, believed to have been carried out
by Syrian army jets, caused many people to choke, and some had foam coming out
of their mouths. All the children were under the age of eight.
"This
morning, at 6:30 a.m., warplanes targeted Khan Sheikhoun with gases, believed
to be sarin and chlorine," said Mounzer Khalil, head of Idlib's health
authority. The attack had killed more than 50 people and wounded 300, he said.
"Most of
the hospitals in Idlib province are now overflowing with wounded people,"
Khalil told a news conference in Idlib.
The air
strikes that hit the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in the south of rebel-held Idlib,
killed at least 58 people, said the Observatory, a British-based war monitoring
group.
Warplanes
later struck near a medical point where victims of the attack were receiving
treatment, the Observatory and civil defense workers said.
The civil
defense, also known as the White Helmets - a rescue service that operates in
opposition areas of Syria - said jets struck one of its centers in the area and
the nearby medical point.
It would mark
the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of
civilians in Ghouta near the capital in August 2013. Western states said the
Syrian government was responsible for the 2013 attack. Damascus blamed rebels.
MILITARY
DENIES
The Syrian
military source on Tuesday denied allegations that government forces had used
chemical weapons.
The army
"has not and does not use them, not in the past and not in the future,
because it does not have them in the first place", the source said.
A series of
investigations by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that various parties in the Syrian war have
used chlorine, sulfur mustard gas and sarin.
A joint
U.N.-OPCW report published last October said government forces used chlorine in
a toxic gas attack in Qmenas in Idlib province in March 2015. An earlier report
by the same team blamed Syrian government troops for chlorine attacks in
Talmenes in March 2014 and Sarmin in March 2015. It also said Islamic State had
used sulfur mustard gas.
The OPCW had
no immediate comment on Tuesday.
France called
for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting about Tuesday's suspected
attack. Turkey, which backs the anti-Assad opposition, said the attack could
derail Russian-backed diplomatic efforts to shore up a ceasefire.
"A new
and particularly serious chemical attack took place this morning in Idlib
province. The first information suggests a large number of victims, including
children. I condemn this disgusting act," French Foreign Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault said.
Reuters
photographs showed people breathing through oxygen masks and wearing protection
suits, while others carried the bodies of dead children, and corpses wrapped in
blankets were lined up on the ground.
Activists in
northern Syria circulated pictures on social media showing a purported victim
with foam around his mouth, and rescue workers hosing down almost naked
children squirming on the floor.
Most of the
town's streets had become empty, a witness said.
CEASEFIRE
Turkey's
state-run Anadolu news agency said 15 people, mostly women and children, had
been brought into Turkey.
An official at
the Turkish Health Ministry had said earlier that Turkey's disaster management
agency was first "scanning those arriving for chemical weapons, then
decontaminating them from chemicals" before they could be taken to
hospitals.
The conflict
pits President Bashar al-Assad's government, helped by Russia and
Iranian-backed militias, against a wide array of rebel groups, including some
that have been supported by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.
The Russian
Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Russian planes had not carried out air
strikes on Khan Sheikhoun.
Syrian and
Russian air strikes have battered parts of Idlib, according to the Observatory,
despite a ceasefire that Turkey and Russia brokered in December.
Jets also
struck the town of Salqin in the north of Idlib province on Tuesday, killing
eight people, the monitor said.
Turkish
President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the
suspected attack, Turkish presidential sources said. They said the two leaders
had also emphasized the importance of maintaining the ceasefire. Turkey's
foreign minister called the attack a crime against humanity.
The European
Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini said: "Obviously there is a
primary responsibility from the regime because it has the primary
responsibility of protecting its people."
TOXIC ARSENAL
Idlib province
contains the largest populated area controlled by anti-Assad rebels - both
nationalist Free Syrian Army groups and Islamist factions including the former
al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
Idlib's
population has ballooned, with thousands of fighters and civilians shuttled out
of Aleppo city and areas around Damascus that the government has retaken in
recent months.
U.S. air
strikes since January have also hit several areas in the rural province where
jihadists have a powerful presence.
Following the
2013 attack, Syria joined the international Chemical Weapons Convention under a
U.S.-Russian deal, averting the threat of U.S.-led military intervention.
Under the
deal, Syria agreed to give up its toxic arsenal and surrendered 1,300 tonnes of
toxic weapons and industrial chemicals to the international community for
destruction.
U.N.-OPCW
investigators found, however, that it continued to use chlorine, which is
widely available and difficult to trace, in so-called barrel bombs, dropped
from helicopters.
Although
chlorine is not a banned substance, the use of any chemical is banned under
1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Syria is a member.
Damascus has
repeatedly denied using such weapons during the six-year war, which has killed
hundreds of thousands and created the world's worst refugee crisis.
REUTERS
REUTERS
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