On Tuesday Morning in northern Idlib, a Syrian province, fatal chemical weapons killed over a dozen people, including many children. Along with the fatalities, a large number of people also became sick. Rescue workers from the White Helmets civil defense organization reported that were at least 50 dead and 250 wounded or sick.
Radi Saad, who writes incident reports for the White Helmets, said that volunteers reached the site not aware of chemicals being present, resulting in five of them suffering from exposure to the substances.
Medics, rescuers and witnesses of the province believe that the gas air-strike was delivered by the government.
Hours later, told by witnesses, another airstrike hit a clinic that was treating victims of the previous gas attack.
Because chlorine gas attacks have become a sorrow routine in northern Syria, according to civilians, this airstrike was very different. Chlorine attacks normally kill just a few people, often those trapped in an enclosed space, while the gas dissipates quickly after.
This time, witnesses say, people collapsed outdoors and in much larger quantities. Different symptoms were also reported: the pinpoint pupils of victims that characterize nerve agents and other banned toxins. Several people were sickened simply by coming into contact with the victims.
Along with this tragic event, on Friday, Trump administration officials stated that expelling Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, was no longer a priority to them and that their main goal was now to fight against the Islamic State.
On Tuesday, the White House put the blame on the Syrian government regarding the attack, which it called a “reprehensible” act “that cannot be ignored by the civilized world.”
White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, then told reporters that “these heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution.”
Dodging the question at hand, this is what Spicer had to say.
Spicer declined to respond to questions about Trump’s administration policy in Syria.
Speaking for Trump, he also later added, “He is not here to telegraph what we are going to do, but rest assured he has been speaking with his national security team this morning.”
He later added that “[t]he statement speaks for itself.”
