At least 11 people were left struggling to breathe on Saturday after airstrikes on Syria’s rebel town of Douma, as rescuers alleged that toxic gases were used.
Syrian state media quickly denied that troops had deployed chemical weapons on Douma, the last opposition-held town in the battered Eastern Ghouta enclave.
Regime forces resumed a military blitz of Douma on Friday after an apparent breakdown in negotiations between regime backer Moscow and Jaish Al-Islam, the rebels that hold the town.
On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes on the northern edges of the town had left 11 people, including five children, “suffocating and suffering shortness of breath.” The White Helmets rescue forces said Douma had been hit with toxic gas.
“Cases of suffocation between the civilians in neighborhood in the city Douma after it was targeted by poison gas chlorine,” it wrote on its English-language Twitter account.
The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) also told AFP that medical staff they supported inside Douma had reported chlorine use.
“I spoke to one of the doctors inside the town, who told me... they received a number of wounded with symptoms from chlorine gas,” said SAMS advocacy director Mohammad Katoub, based in Turkey. Syria’s regime has been accused of using toxic gas including chlorine and sarin throughout the seven-year conflict.
Separately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of abetting terrorists by “hosting them” at the Elysee Palace, amid a diplomatic row between the NATO allies over Paris’s support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
On March 30 after President Emmanuel Macron met a Syrian delegation including the YPG and its political arm, the PYD, and gave assurances of French support to help stabilize northern Syria against Daesh.
Turkey also criticized the US for sending what it said were mixed messages on Syria, saying Washington was sowing confusion by equivocating about its future role in the country. “The president of the United States says ‘We’re going to get out of Syria very soon’ and then others say, ‘No, we are staying’,” Ibrahim Kalin said, referring to comments from Donald Trump and other officials.
“Obviously it does create a lot of confusion on the ground, as well as for us. We would like to see some clarity, for them to decide what is the next step, what is the ultimate goal there.”
Syrians hit by new ‘toxic gas attack’ as regime resume airstrikes on Douma
Syrians hit by new ‘toxic gas attack’ as regime resume airstrikes on Douma
- Regime airstrike resume on Douma to force rebels to surrender
- 'The Russians are making humiliating demands for Douma fighters', rebels spokesperson
Top ex-British Army officers urge complete arms embargo on Israel
- Evidence of war crimes in Gaza is ‘so well documented and compelling’
- Appeal made in letter to UK PM ‘to avoid the charge of complicity’
LONDON: Four former senior members of the British Army have urged the government to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel, The Times reported.
They also called for a ban on any British involvement in Israeli-owned or Israeli-supported arms manufacturers.
The appeal came in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which the signatories said that amid Gaza’s fragile ceasefire, “now is not the time to return to business as usual with the Israeli government.” More severe sanctions must be placed on Israel, they said.
The letter was signed by John Deverell, a retired brigadier general who served for more than 30 years, and Sir Andrew Graham, a retired lieutenant general and former director general of the Defence Academy of the UK. Deverell was defense attache in Saudi Arabia and Yemen at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Maj. Gen Peter Currie and Maj. Gen. Charlie Herbert, a former senior British Army commander in Afghanistan, are also signatories.
The army is set to decide next year whether to award the British subsidiary of Elbit Systems, a major weapons company, a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) training contract for soldiers, aimed at future preparedness.
Elbit Systems UK is part of a consortium of defense companies bidding for the substantial 15-year contract offered by the British Army. Raytheon UK leads the competing consortium.
The signatories strongly pushed back against a claim that Israel’s military had followed similar protocols to the British Army during the war on Gaza.
They challenged remarks by a senior UK Ministry of Defence source who said: “Israel appears to have thorough and rigorous processes for the conduct of hostilities and targeting, that in many respects resemble our own.”
They said British military practices have clear differences with Israel’s ones, including the latter’s indiscriminate firing of munitions that led to “exceptionally disproportionate and avoidable civilian fatalities, and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
They added that the UK should ban Israeli officers from attending British military courses, and prevent UK defense officials from taking part in visits to Israel.
The letter also highlighted the issue of famine in Gaza, noting that more than 100 humanitarian organizations have expressed grave concerns over conditions in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s military had frequently targeted hospitals, schools and other sites essential for civilian survival, they said, citing humanitarian groups.
The signatories also referred to high-profile reports of Palestinian detainees facing torture in Israeli custody.
Evidence of Israeli war crimes is “so well documented and compelling that the British government should cut all military collaboration with Israel forthwith, to avoid the charge of complicity,” they said.
The group also called on the UK government to prevent the use of Royal Air Force or British-contracted aircraft in any Israeli military activities. Britain should also suspend any transfer of military technology to Israel, they said.
