Syria: Regime forces drop ‘chlorine gas’ in Damascus

By Halit Suleyman

ALEPPO, Syria

Syrian regime forces on Wednesday struck two opposition-held areas by chlorine gas bombs in capital Damascus.

Regime aircraft dropped barrel bombs laced with chlorine gas on the Damascus suburbs of Ein Tarma and Jobar, field hospital sources told Anadolu Agency.

One person was killed and seven people suffered temporary asphyxia in the attack, the sources added anonymously due to safety concerns.

According to the sources, the victims suffered symptoms of chlorine exposure as vomiting and breathing difficulties.

Last month, ten people, including children, suffered temporary asphyxia when Syrian regime aircraft bombed the opposition-held city of Saraqib in the northwestern Idlib province with barrel bombs laced with chlorine gas.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million victims have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.