‘I was asleep, then my breath seized up’: Child’s harrowing account of gas attack that killed his father, brother and 1,700 sleeping Syrians as Russia urges Assad to co-operate with U.N
- - First eyewitness accounts of Wednesday's alleged chemical weapons attack
- - Testimony comes as Western leaders stiffen their rhetoric against Assad
- - Obama said attack could lead to greater U.S. involvement in the civil war
- - William Hague says he is pressing for UN team to have access to the scene
- - The Syrian government calls allegations 'illogical and fabricated'
- - Grim milestone as number of Syrian child refugees reaches one million
By DAMIEN GAYLE
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A 13-year-old boy has told how 'his breath seized up' as he was overcome by poisonous fumes in his home during the gas attack allegedly launched by Syrian regime forces.
The boy has given one of the first witness accounts by survivors of Wednesday morning's alleged attack which, it is claimed, killed up to 1,700 people in their beds.
His testimony comes as Western leaders stiffened their rhetoric against the Syrian government, and even close ally Russia urged it to allow UN inspectors access to the scene of the alleged atrocity.
The Syrian government denies launching the attack, calling the claims 'illogical and fabricated'. But as the testimony of survivors emerges it faces difficult questions.
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Recovering: Children, affected by what activists say was a gas attack, breathe through oxygen masks in the Damascus suburb of Saqba. The first eyewitness reports of the alleged attack have begun to emerge
A boy is given oxygen in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Damascus's rebel-held Ghouta district
Grief: A young survivor of the alleged gas attack weeps as he takes shelter inside a mosque
A boy, whose name was given only as Abdullah, told how he was sleeping in his bed when the attack began before dawn on Wednesday.
'I was asleep,' he told the Daily Telegraph. 'Then my breath seized up. I tried the stairs but I couldn't find the steps: I had lost control of my body.'
His father and brother were killed, he said. His mother is still alive.
A second witness, named as Mohammed Ibrahim, 24, told the paper how he had heard the initial explosion and ran outside to help.
He said: 'I saw women and children lying in the streets dying or collapsed or already dead, even babies. I became contaminated myself and fainted and don't remember anything after that.'
Parents weep as they look for their children among the dead: Syria's government denies launching the latest attack on Wednesday and pictures show that some victims had foam coming from their mouths
Grim toll: The fighting in Syria's bloody two-year civil war has killed an estimated 100,000 people so far
Their voices join a growing chorus of condemnation over the alleged attack, as U.S. President Barack Obama today said that it could lead to greater American involvement in Syria's civil war.
Foreign powers have said chemical weapons could change the calculus in terms of intervention and have negotiated with Damascus to allow a UN team to examine the site of three small-scale attacks where poison gas was allegedly used.
The UN is now seeking to expand the group's mandate to allow them to investigate the most recent attack, whose death toll ranges from 500 to more than 1,000 people.
Syria has given no response to the demands.
'It is very troublesome': President Barack Obama on CNN today, where he suggested U.S. intervention in Syria may be necessary to end the war
President Obama today defended his administration's decision to not intervene militarily in the conflict so far, but said U.S. focus on the country would be necessary for the fighting to come to an end.
'I think it is fair to say that, as difficult as the problem is, this is something that is going to require America's attention and hopefully the entire international community's attention,' he told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
Obama said the U.S., along with United Nations inspectors, were gathering information on the attack, but that preliminary signs point to a 'big event of grave concern.'
'It is very troublesome,' he said. 'That starts getting to some core national interests that the United States has, both in terms of us making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies, our bases in the region.'
In the UK, William Hague warned that 'time is of the essence' as he announced he would be holding emergency talks with key international figures over the Syrian chemical attack.
The Foreign Secretary is meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatar's foreign minister.
He wrote on Twitter: 'Urgent discussions today with UN Secretary General, Secretary Kerry and FM of Qatar on £Syria chemical attacks.
'We are pressing for immediate access for the UN team and consulting allies on response to this terrible atrocity.
'Time is of the essence. Every day without UN access is a day in which evidence can deteriorate or be hidden by those responsible.'
As the evidence piles up, even the Russian Foreign Ministry today announced it has urged Syria to allow a U.N. experts mission already in Damascus access to the site of the alleged atrocity.
The ministry also said in a statement that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had yesterday agreed that an objective investigation was needed into the allegations.
Russia has been Assad's most powerful international ally during Syria's civil war. The ministry statement said rebel forces should guarantee safe passage for the UN mission.
UN inspectors in the Syria - as well as Western journalists - have previously come under attack from elements within country's opposition movement.
Under pressure: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, is a close ally of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, right, but today Russia's Foreign Ministry urged Syria to allow UN inspectors into the site of the alleged atrocity
For their part, Syrian activists claim they are smuggling out tissue samples from victims of the alleged chemical weapons attack and are trying to get them to the inspectors, who are staying in a hotel just a few miles away.
Activist Abu Nidal, speaking from the town of Arbin, told Reuters: 'The UN team spoke with us and since then we prepared samples of hair, skin and blood and smuggled them back into Damascus with trusted couriers.'
The opposition accuses President Assad's forces of firing rockets before dawn on Wednesday loaded which poison gas in the midst of a fierce offensive on the rebel-held suburbs that ring the capital.
The army has been pummelling the area, known as the Ghouta region, since Tuesday night with air raids and artillery strikes that could hinder access to the sites and potentially damage evidence.
Chemical weapons experts say every hour counts - the longer it takes, the more likely evidence can be covered up or tampered with.
Syrian activists wearing gas masks bag a dead cat as they collect samples for chemical weapon use: Any evidence gathered could prove crucial in determining what actually happened in Damascus's eastern suburbs.
Aftermath: A Syrian opposition activist wearing a gas mask stands next to a dead dog. The opposition says it will try to smuggle out tissue samples from the victims and get them to UN inspectors staying in Damascus
Only a few activists said they were confident that they had a contact who would be able to hand their samples to the U.N. inspectors.
Several activists in the area who spoke to Reuters said they had prepared samples to smuggle into the capital but were unable to find a way to access the monitors inside their hotel.
'We're being shelled and on top of that Ghouta is surrounded by regime checkpoints. But even that isn't a problem, we can smuggle them out,' said activist Abo Mohammed, from the suburb of Harasta.
'The problem is the location of the U.N. committee in the hotel. They're under heavy guard and government minders.'
Activists say that in addition to tissue samples they have taken photographs of bomb sites, soil samples, and written witness accounts.
Violence rages on: Blood covers the walls and furniture of a restaurant after a suicide bombing in Aleppo
Who are the good guys? A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up in the crowded restaurant during a private party, killing at least seven people according to Syria's national news agency SANA
Syria's uprising against four decades of Assad family rule has turned into a civil war that has so far killed more than 100,000 people.
Today the deepening conflict reached another grim milestone as the number of registered child refugees fleeing Syria's violence topped the one million mark.
Roughly half of all the nearly 2million registered refugees from Syria are children, and some 740,000 of those are under the age of 11, according to the UN refugee and children's agencies.
'This one millionth child refugee is not just another number,' said Anthony Lake, the head of UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency.
'This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend.'
Syrian children play in front of their tent at Zaatari Syrian refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan. The number of Syrian children who have fled war in their homeland has now reached one million, the UN announced today
A Syrian baby is treated by aid workers in Iraqi Kurdistan: Roughly half of all the nearly 2million registered refugees from Syria are children, and some 740,000 of those are under the age of 11
Hard times: A Syrian girl washes the dishes at the Quru Gusik refugee camp, Iraq. More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria's borders separated from their families, according to U.N. figures
The children's ordeals are not over once they escape Syria, said Antonio Guterres, the head of the Office for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, known as UNHCR.
'Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatised, depressed and in need of a reason for hope,' he said.
His agency said it tries to ensure that babies born in exile are provided with birth certificates, preventing them from becoming stateless, and that all refugee families and children live in some form of safe shelter.
But the threats to refugee children are rising, the agencies say, including child labour, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking.
More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria's borders unaccompanied or separated from their families, according to the U.N. figures.
The agencies say some 7,000 children are among the more than 100,000 killed in the unrest in Syria, which began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war.
Crisis: UNHCR tries to ensure that babies born in exile are provided with birth certificates, preventing them from becoming stateless, and that all refugee families and children live in some form of safe shelter
Most of the refugees fleeing Syria have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. However, U.N. officials say that increasingly Syrians are fleeing to North Africa and Europe.
The two U.N. agencies estimate that more than 2million children also have been displaced within Syria.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today the real number of Syrian refugees is 'well over 2million' if unregistered refugees are counted.
'The situation in Syria continues to worsen. The humanitarian suffering is alarming. Sectarian tensions have been ignited. Regional instability is spreading,' Ban said in a speech in Seoul, South Korea.
'It is heartbreaking to see all these young people, children and women and refugees, who do not have any means, any hope for their country,' he said. 'They do not know when they will be able to return to their country.'
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