Graphic footage of chlorine gas attacks prompts US to consider no-fly zone in Syria
President Bashar al-Assad has denied being behind a series of chlorine gas attacks launched in barrel bombs from helicopters over the northwestern province of Idlib since March
Sickened by footage of doctors trying to help child victims of a gas attack, US lawmakers on Wednesday renewed calls for a US-led no fly zone over Syria. They were also warned that the use of this chlorine gas could rise.
“I’m a doctor and I’m very familiar with death. But I never seen a more obscene way to kill children and never watched so many suffer in such an obscene manner,” doctor Annie Sparrow told lawmakers.
While the Syrian government has handed over its stocks of chemical weapons for destruction by the international community, chlorine does not count as a banned material because it has many uses, such as purifying water.
“The Syrian government is using chlorine gas with impunity,” the former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, told the House foreign affairs committee.
President Bashar al-Assad has denied being behind a series of chlorine gas attacks launched in barrel bombs from helicopters over the northwestern province of Idlib since March. As many as 45 attacks have been reported.
Despite a UN resolution outlawing chlorine gas attacks, Ford said that Assad, fighting a four-year civil war to oust him, is not deterred.