Activists
have accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of launching Sarin gas attack
in what is considered the worst use of poison gas since World War II.
Reportedly,
rockets filled with chemical agents hit the suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and
Jobar just before dawn. Horrifying
barely describes the scene in Damascus after 1,300 civilians were killed as
they slept in their beds.
Graphic
photos of dead men, women, and children have been emerging since the attack,
raising awareness of the plight of innocent people trapped in a war with no end
in sight.
Syrian
state television denied accounts of chemical weapon use, allegedly deliberately
to distract the team of UN chemical weapons experts that arrived three days
ago.
Syria’s
Information Minister claimed the activists report was ‘disillusioned and
fabricated, one whose objective is to deviate and mislead’ the UN mission.
However,
videos of children and adults in field hospitals suffering from the effects of
the gas have emerged.
Al
Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh has been reporting from Jordan, and stated:
"We have been receiving reports that
the doctors in the field hospitals do not have the right medication to treat
these cases and that they were treating people with vinegar and water."
Sarin
gas is colorless, tasteless and odorless. It’s considered to be one of the most
toxic chemical warfare agents and causes paralysis, loss of consciousness, and
respiratory failure.
If
untreated upon inhalation death can occur within 10 minutes, and only a
fraction of an ounce on the skin is enough to be fatal.
Syria
has the largest arsenal of chemical weapons in the world including Sarin and
mustard gas.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said if proven the use of chemical weapons would ‘not only be a massacre, but also an unprecedented atrocity’.
