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Syrian Father Devastated After 19 Family Members Die In Chemical Attack

Syrian Father Devastated After 19 Family Members Die In Chemical Attack

This is heartbreaking.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Footage has emerged from war-torn Syria where more than 80 people have been killed in an alleged chemical weapon attack on the north of the country.

The video and photos show lines of bodies, as well as children foaming at the mouth.

A hospital treating the victims was hit by an air strike and some of the injured had to be transported across the border into Turkey.


Credit: Ruptly

More than 80 people have reportedly been killed in the attack, including at least 30 children.

Abdul Hamid al-Youssef had to bury at least 19 members of his family - including his wife and two young children. Images have emerged of Abdul cradling his twins in his arms, visibly heartbroken.

He took his baby boy and girl and buried them in a mass grave with the rest of his family. Each member got their own trench.

Abdul's cousin, Alaa, has told Daily Telegraph, "The family was all waiting down there and were safe, but then they started choking."


Credit: PA

"The twins suddenly began shaking and struggling to breathe.

"Then he watched the chemicals take hold of his wife, then his brother, nieces and nephews.

"Everyone died down there in the basement, they didn't have time to get to the hospital."

Members of the family who survived have recalled the moments after the bomb hit. Aya Fadl watched as a pick-up truck was piled up with bodies.

She said: "My heart is broken. Everything was terrible. Everyone was crying and couldn't breathe.

"We had many circumstances in Syria and we had many difficult situations.

"This is the most difficult and most harmful situation I ever had."

One doctor said the victims looked like zombies with tiny pupils and rotten flesh.

In a video posted to Twitter, Dr Shajul Islam showed how some of the victim's eye's are non-reactive to light, adding that this is an indicator of a sarin gas attack.

Do u still doubt that


Syrian state spokespeople were quick to distance themselves from the suggestion that the government used chemical weapons.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Syrian MP Fares Shehabi said: "Nonsense, as usual. We are used to these fabrications and fake news. We don't need to use chemical attacks, actually we gave up our chemical arsenal two or three years ago."

The Russian Defence Ministry also issued a statement, claiming its warplanes had not been in the Idlib region.

It also backed the Syrian regime's claim that an airstrike had hit what they called a 'terrorist warehouse' which stockpiled chemical weapons.

But Hamish de Bretton Gordon, former head of the UK military's regiment concerning chemical warfare, told BBC Radio that the Russian claim was 'completely untrue and fanciful' and said that 'if you blow up sarin, you destroy it'.

syria white helmets
syria white helmets

Victim being treated. Credit: White Helmets/Twitter

The scenes are reminiscent of an attack in 2013, where sarin gas was used to devastating effect east of the capital Damascus.

Thousands of people were hospitalised and hundreds were killed.

The sarin nerve agent is 20 times more deadly than cyanide, which attacks the respiratory system. It's also difficult to detect because it's odourless, tasteless and colourless.

There was another attack in Hama, late last year where the Syrian authorities say sarin gas was used, but that couldn't be independently verified by international observers.

Saddam Hussein was globally criticised for his use of nerve gas against thousands of Kurds in the early 1990s while the Iran-Iraq War of the mid 1980s was marked by extensive use of chemical weapons.

Source: Telegraph, BBC, Time, and Express

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Syria