Russia puts blames of chemical attack on stored rebels’ weapons
Russia says that chemical gas that killed and injured dozens of civilians in a rebel-held town in northern Syria came from rebel weapons on the ground, the BBC wrote.
Its defence ministry acknowledged that Syrian planes had attacked the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.
But it said the aircraft had struck a depot producing mines filled with a poisonous substance, for use in Iraq, the BBC indicated.
The US and others said Syrian planes had dropped chemical weapons, which Damascus denied.
BBC also added that UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson responded to the Russian statement by saying: “All the evidence I have seen suggests this was the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime… using illegal weapons on their own people.”
UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll in Khan Sheikhoun at 72, including 20 children, indicated the BBC.
Footage from the scene showed civilians, many of them children, choking and foaming at the mouth. Witnesses said clinics treating the injured were then targeted by air strikes, BCC explained in its report.
According to the BBC, some of the victims were treated across the border in Turkey. One woman in hospital said: “We were affected by the gas. We couldn’t stand up. I felt dizzy and sick. I suffer from shortness of breath. I couldn’t breathe.”
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