New Reports of Chemical Weapons in Syria; Dozens May Be Dead
“Two Syrian pro-opposition groups are claiming that dozens of people were killed Wednesday in a poisonous gas attack near Damascus” that they’re blaming on government forces, NPR’s Jean Cochran reported earlier this morning on our Newscast.
“The reports have not been independently confirmed,” Jean added, and President Bashar Assad’s regime says the claims are “baseless.”
Reuters is leading its report this way: “Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of launching a nerve gas attack that killed at least 213 people on Wednesday, in what would, if confirmed, be by far the worst reported use of poison gas in the two-year-old civil war.”
This news comes as a U.N. team is in Syria to investigate earlier alleged uses of chemical weapons.
The BBC’s Naomi Grimley adds that opposition groups have released “distressing pictures [that] show children lying limp in the arms of adults” and adults being hosed down, allegedly to wash away chemicals. But, she says, those images haven’t been independently verified.
More: New Reports of Chemical Weapons in Syria; Dozens May Be Dead : The Two-Way : NPR