Syrian activists allege that this unverified video shows yellow chlorine gas floating through the streets of Kfar Zeita, a village in Hama north of Damascus, and accuse President Bashar al-Assad's forces of using chemical weapons in an attack Thursday.
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A man's voice off screen says, "Chlorine gas bombing. Yellow smoke."
Syrian activists told Reuters that 70 people were wounded in two chlorine gas attacks on Kfar Zeita Thursday. They also reported a chlorine attack on the village of Al-Tamana'a, in northwest Idlib.
The activists allege that Thursday's chlorine attack was part of a two-month-long government assault on the village, during which Assad's troops have used helicopters to drop chlorine gas canisters on civilians.
The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has opened an investigation into the allegations, which include more than a dozen reported incidents since April 11. The Syrian government has denied using chlorine or poisonous gases and instead repeatedly blamed these instances on opposition rebel groups.
In August 2013, Assad signed a Russia-brokered deal pledging to identify and dispose all chemical weapons after an alleged government sarin gas attack near Damascus killed hundreds and raised international ire. Syria is now several weeks behind the 2013 deal's timeline, and an estimated 7% of Assad's known chemical weapons still remain inside Syria. Chlorine gas was not part of the 2013 deal; nonetheless, use of chlorine as a weapon is illegal according to a global chemical weapons convention that Syria has signed.
On Wednesday, BuzzFeed reported that research submitted by the Syrian American Medical Society to the U.S. documenting alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government had garnered no official response. News of Thursday's attack, however, caused a greater stir on social media.
While we sit by and watch... "#Syria video shows chlorine gas floating in streets: activists" http://t.co/TyuMn8wyMh
Hours after the reported attack, Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to refer Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the International Criminal Court for possible charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
So that's three chlorine barrel bomb attacks in 24 hours. On the day of the ICC vote, talk about thumbing your nose to the world.
Years from now our grandkids will ask how we could've failed to bring justice to people living in hell on earth. What will Russia/China say?
Also on Thursday, government troops broke a nearly two-year-old rebel siege on a prison in Aleppo. Activists shared these unverified photos of prisoners, including children. The Aleppo assault followed Assad's recent retaking of Homs.
Unlike what Syrian officials said 4 past year..look at child prisoners in Aleppo Central Prison