MESOP DOCU : HRW reports five chlorine attacks in mid-April

Human Rights Watch released a report Tuesday citing “strong evidence” that Syrian government forces had launched five separate attacks using barrel bombs filled chlorine gas in three separate towns in northern Syrian, bolstering allegations made last week by the opposition Syrian National Coalition at press conference in Istanbul.

According to doctors who treated the victims and subsequently spoke to Human Rights Watch, these attacks killed at least 11 people and resulted in symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine in nearly 500 other people,” HRW writes. Among the incidents was an April 21 attack on the town of Telmans in southeastern Idlib governorate “that killed 3 people and affected an estimated 133.”

HRW’s report largely corresponds with statements from the Syrian opposition’s Interim Defense Minister Asaad Mustafa at a May 7 press conference, in which he charged that government helicopters had dropped two chlorine-filled barrel bombs on Telmans on April 21, killing a six-year-old girl and affecting 400. Chlorine was not specifically included on the list of chemicals to be removed from Syria per a September 2013 agreement, but its use as a weapon is banned under an international treaty joined by Syria in October 2013. http://syriadirect.org/rss/1369-syria-direct-news-update-5-13-2014