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August 21st, 2013 
Peter Nolan Syrian rebels have said a new series ofchemical attacks struck early Wednesday morning. NBC ‘s Richard Engel reports.
Activists and rebel fighters accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces of killing hundreds of civilians – including many women and children – in chemical weapons attacks on Wednesday.
Video clips apparently showing the graphic and disturbing aftermath of the alleged attacks on the rebel-held eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta were posted to social media but could not be independently verified.
If confirmed, it would be by far the worst known use of poison gas during the country’s deadly civil war, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports, which he said would represent “a shocking escalation” in the conflict. He promised to raise the issue at the United Nations Security Council.
State television denied the reports, which it said were disseminated deliberately to distract United Nations chemical weapons experts who arrived in the country on Monday.
Musab abu Qutada, a spokesman for the local military council of the Free Syria Army, who is in the area near where he attacks took place, said the death toll had reached more than 1,200. NBC News could not verify the claim.
Several towns and villages to the east and north of the capital were attacked by surface-to-surface missiles beginning around 2 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. Tuesday ET), the rebel spokesman said.
Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region near Damascus on Wednesday.
“The deceased and the wounded are in field hospitals,” he said in a Skype interview. “We have about 1,228 victims. We are in need of medicine. We are in need of medical staff.”
The “chemical bombardment” was so strong that doctors at the scene had also died from the effects of the gas, he said.
“There were some symptoms like numbing of the body, constricted pupils of the eye, foam coming out of the mouth, paleness of faces, shortness of breath,” he said.
“The areas that were targeted were civilian areas, they are not military areas. They targeted women and children to apply pressure on the Free Syrian Army.”
Conflicting death tolls from different sources could not immediately be reconciled by NBC News. Witness accounts are impossible to verify because Syria does not allow journalists to operate freely inside its borders.
The opposition Local Coordination Committees in Syria put the death toll at more than 755, saying several areas had been hit by “shelling with poisonous gases.”
It said the areas hit included Ein Tarma and Zamalka in eastern Ghouta and Mouadamieh in western Ghouta.
Bayan Baker, a nurse at a field hospital in Douma, told Reuters that death toll from the attack, collated from medical centers in the region, was 213.
“Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,” she said.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission told regional news channel Al Arabiya that the death toll was at least 640, with hundreds of others reported wounded.
Intensive bombing in the area could be heard by residents in the city center, it reported.
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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
One photo purportedly taken by activists in Douma showed the bodies of at least 16 children and three adults, one wearing combat fatigues, laid at the floor of a room in a medical facility where the bodies were collected, Reuters said.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the activists in the area said “poisonous gas” was fired in rockets as well as from the air. He added that regime forces were on a wide offensive on the eastern and western rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.
Abdul-Rahman said the observatory had been able to confirm more than 40 deaths from its activists on the ground.
NBC News’ Charlene Gubash and Ammar Cheikhomar, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
- Exodus: Thousands of Syrian refugees escape into Iraq
- Analysis: Who’s backing who as Syria’s civil war threatens to spread
- White House: Syria’s Assad is ‘one of the worst tyrants’ of modern era
This story was originally published on Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:16 AM EDT
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