Four patients exhibiting symptoms of exposure to chemical agents were treated at a hospital run by worldwide medical organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in northern Syria’s Aleppo governorate on August 21.
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Local rebels told the BBC the shells were fired from a village to the east occupied by Islamic State militants.
Chemical weapons may have been used by Islamic militants after people from Marea reported suffering from breathing difficulties and developed blisters after a mortar hit the town.
The family came from the town of Marea, in Azaz District, north of Aleppo, which had been under intense bombardment by mortars and artillery for a week.
It was identified to be a mustard gas attack, which seriously affected the people.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had treated civilians apparently exposed to a chemical agent in Marea, without saying what type or providing overall casualty figures. The family’s home was struck Friday with a shell that emitted a yellow gas that filled the living room, the group said.
IS, which has seized territory across Syria and Iraq, is fighting Kurdish forces and Arab groups opposed to it in both countries.
Noteworthy, the U.S. Central Command said earlier this month that ISIS was suspected of having used chemical agents in an attack on Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
MSF said the four patients – two parents and their three-year-old and five-day-old daughters – arrived at one of its hospitals an hour after Friday evening’s attack in Aleppo province, suffering from respiratory difficulties, inflamed skin, red eyes and conjunctivitis. By Saturday, a few of the most severe cases had developed large pustules all over their bodies, he said. Reports of a sulphur mustard attack on Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq are also being investigated.
At least 9 Syrian officers have been killed throughout clashes with the Islamic State (IS) terror group, a media report stated.
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The Assad government said two years ago that its chemical weapons stockpiles, including mustard gas, had been destroyed under an agreement brokered by the United States and Russian Federation .
