CAIRO -- Several Syrians have died after inhaling poisonous gas released by government forces in rebel-held districts of Homs, local eyewitnesses and activists claimed Monday.
Civilians were admitted to hospital with serious breathing problems after Sundays attack, according to doctors and groups who posted what they said was video of the aftermath to YouTube.
The gas is thought to have been a concentrated irritant, but not one of the deadly chemical weapons stockpiled by the regime of Syria president Bashar Assad.
Claims by either side in Syrias bitter civil war are almost impossible to independently verify because journalists are rarely allowed access to the country.
Pesticide poisoning?
Mousab Azzawi, chairman of the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights and a doctor, told NBC News that his organization had received reports from three eyewitnesses on Sunday.
He said field doctors in Homs were seeing patients losing consciousness, experiencing severe shortness of breath and vomiting.
To our understanding, this is similar to poisoning with pesticide, he said, although he was not aware of any pesticide that could take the form of a gas.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...-after-assads-forces-use-poisonous-gases?lite
Civilians were admitted to hospital with serious breathing problems after Sundays attack, according to doctors and groups who posted what they said was video of the aftermath to YouTube.
The gas is thought to have been a concentrated irritant, but not one of the deadly chemical weapons stockpiled by the regime of Syria president Bashar Assad.
Claims by either side in Syrias bitter civil war are almost impossible to independently verify because journalists are rarely allowed access to the country.
Pesticide poisoning?
Mousab Azzawi, chairman of the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights and a doctor, told NBC News that his organization had received reports from three eyewitnesses on Sunday.
He said field doctors in Homs were seeing patients losing consciousness, experiencing severe shortness of breath and vomiting.
To our understanding, this is similar to poisoning with pesticide, he said, although he was not aware of any pesticide that could take the form of a gas.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...-after-assads-forces-use-poisonous-gases?lite
