A suspected gas attack on a city in northern Syria is suspected to have killed dozens and injured more than 200 people, including at least 10 children, marking the worst chemical attack in years.
Several airstrikes hit Khan Shaykhun in Syria’s Idlib province around 6:30 AM on Tuesday, early reports indicate. The munitions gave off a “poisonous gas,” Anas al-Diab, an activist with the Aleppo Media Center, told CNN.
Videos and pictures circulated on social media showing victims in the streets, gasping for breathe as they suffered from asphyxiation. Rescue workers hosed down victims in an apparent attempt to wash off the chemicals before evacuating them. Several pictures showed bodies with foam at the mouth.
The Aleppo Media Center reported that an airstrike targeted a hospital where victims of the chemical attack were being treated.
It is unclear what kind of chemical agent was used in the attacks, or whether or not the aircraft used in the attack belonged to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, however, the dictator is known to have engaged in chemical attacks against his people before.
“We’ve seen this movie before — it was when Barack Obama said they would have a red line, [the regime] crossed it, and he did nothing,” Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, in an interview with CNN. “Bashar Assad and his friends, the Russians, take note of what Americans say.”
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