1,300 killed in gas attack in Syria: Oppn

1,300 killed in gas attack in Syria: Oppn Global Call For UN Probe; Russia Hints At Rebel Hand Beirut/Amman: Syria’s opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of gassing many hundreds of people — by one report as many as 1,300 — on Wednesday in what would, if confirmed, be the world’s worst chemical weapons attack in decades.     Western and regional countries called for UN chemical weapons investigators — who arrived in Damascus just three days ago — to be urgently dispatched to the scene of one of the deadliest incidents of the two-year-old civil war.     Russia, however, called the Syrian opposition claims of chemical weapons attack a ‘premeditated provocation’, suggesting that rebels could have staged the assault to provoke international action. Images, including some taken by freelance photographers and supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies including of small children, laid out on the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injuries. Reuters was not independently able to verify the cause of their death. The Syrian government denied that it had used chemical arms.     George Sabra, one of the leading opponents of Assad, said the death toll was 1,300 killed by poison gas rained down on suburbs east of Damascus. “Today’s crimes are ... not the first time the regime has used chemical weapons. But they constitute a turning point in the regime’s operations,” he told a news conference in Istanbul. “This time it was for annihilation rather than terror.”     An opposition monitoring group, citing figures compiled from medical clinics in the Damascus suburbs, put the death toll at 494 — 90%of them killed by gas, the rest by bombing and conventional arms. The rebel Syrian National Coalition said 650 people had been killed.     If the cause of death and the scale of the killing were confirmed, it would be the worst known use of chemical weapons since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in the town ofHalabja in 1988. Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar during fierce pre-dawn bombardment by government forces. The Damascus Media Office monitoring centre said 150 bodies were counted in Hammouriya, 100 in Kfar Batna, 67 in Saqba, 61 in Douma, 76 in Mouadamiya and 40 in Irbib, all suburbs of Damascus.     A nurse at Douma Emergency Collection facility, Bayan Baker, earlier told Reuters the death toll collated from medical centres was at least 213. “Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils constricted, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,” the nurse said. Exposure to sarin gas causes pupils in eyes to shrink to pinpoint sizes and foaming at the lips.     The UN team is probing allegations that both rebels and army used chemical weapons in the past, one of the main disputes in international diplomacy over Syria. REUTERS  FATAL FUMES Syria is said to have one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin. The govt refuses to confirm or deny it possesses such weapons  SARIN It attacks the nervous system. Inhalation can cause death within 1-10 minutes of exposure Mild exposure can lead to eye irritation, runny nose, drooling, cough, diarrhoea, drowsiness and nausea. Symptoms of serious exposure include respiratory failure, loss of consciousness and paralysis SYMPTOMS appear within seconds after exposure to vapour form and up to 18 hours after exposure to liquid form  Antidotes atropine and physostigmine must be administered immediately MUSTARD GAS It is a blistering agent, burning eyes and skin exposed to it and lungs, mouth and throat if it is inhaled. It is not normally lethal, but can cause cancer and serious disfigurement  SYMPTOMS include conjunctivitis, skin burns, throat pain, cough and susceptibility to infection and pneumonia No immediate symptoms upon contact; takes 2-24 hours for victim to become aware  There is no treatment or antidote. The agent must be removed entirely from the body