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BEIRUT – Syrian government media and rebel forces said Saturday poison gas had been used in a central village, blaming each other for an attack reportedly injuring scores of people.
Details of the attack Friday in Kfar Zeita, a village in Hama province 125 miles north of Damascus, remained sketchy Saturday night.
But online videos posted by rebel activists showed pale-faced men, women and children gasping for breath at a field hospital, suggesting an affliction by some kind of poison in a conflict that’s seen hundreds killed by chemical weapons.
The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said the poison gas attack hurt dozens of people, though it did not identify the gas used.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group relying on a network of on-the-ground volunteers, said the gas attack happened during air raids that left heavy smoke over the area. It reported people suffered from suffocation and breathing problems after the attack but gave no further details.
State-run Syrian television blamed members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front rebel group for using what it described as chlorine gas in an attack it said killed two people and injuring more than 100.
The TV report claimed the Nusra Front is preparing for another chemical attack against the Wadi Deif area in the northern province of Idlib, as well as another area in Hama. The government station did not explain how it knew the Nusra Front’s plans.
Activists in the village could not be reached Saturday.
An activist from Hama who currently is in Turkey and is in contact with residents told The Associated Press the attack occurred around sunset Friday. The man, who goes by the name Amir al-Basha, said the air raids on the rebel-held village came as nearby areas including Morek and Khan Sheikhoun have witnessed intense clashes between troops and opposition fighters.
An amateur video posted online by opposition activists showed a hospital room in Kfar Zeita that was packed with men and children, some of whom breathing through oxygen masks. On one bed, the video showed six children, some appearing to have difficulty breathing while others cried.
