Detailed account of Syria conflict include claims that suggest chemicals and toxic gases have been used on battlefields
Medics working in six rebel-held districts near Damascus have treated several hundred fighters for symptoms of chemical exposure since March, a detailed investigation has found, adding fresh impetus to claims the Syrian regime has resorted to the banned weapons.
A reporter from the French newspaper Le Monde who spent two months with rebel groups on the edge of the Syrian capital claims to have witnessed chemical attacks and to have seen numerous victims at various stages of exposure.The first-hand account, which includes interviews with medics, rebel leaders and patients, is the most-detailed yet among a range of claims that suggest chemicals and or gases have been used on numerous Syrian battlefields.
The report was immediately seized on by the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, who on Monday said: "There is increasingly strong evidence of localised use of chemical weapons [in Syria]. That must all be verified. We are consulting with our partners to see what concrete consequences that we are going to draw from this."
Britain, the US and Israel have also alleged to have evidence of chemical use. Le Monde blames regime forces for their use. That assessment is shared by all three countries, whose officials say they are still studying earlier findings, which have been based on blood and soil samples taken from the site of the alleged attacks.
Le Monde's account is supported by video of apparent victims being treated and reports of a dispensing device – a 20cm cylinder that allegedly releases a gas soon after hitting the ground......"
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