Russia and Syria blame rebels for gas attack that injured dozens in Aleppo

 A Syrian boy receives treatment at a hospital in the regime-controlled Aleppo on November 24, 2018.
(Image credit: George Ourfalian/Getty Images)

Russia and Syrian state media have accused Syrian rebel fighters of responsibility for a gas attack that reportedly injured about 100 people in the city of Aleppo late Saturday. Rebel leaders denied the accusation, alleging the Bashar al-Assad regime is attempting to undercut ceasefire efforts, but Russia said Sunday it had retaliated with airstrikes.

Zaher Batal of the Aleppo Doctors Syndicate told Reuters gas attack victims, children among them, experienced symptoms including constrained breathing and eye inflammation. "We cannot know the kinds of gases but we suspected chlorine and treated patients on this basis because of the symptoms," he said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.