The Assad regime forces once again used internationally banned chemical weapons in bombing the liberated Jobar district of Damascus after the offensive they launched over two months ago failed to advance on the rebel-held area.
In a statement on Saturday, the United Medical Office in Jobar said that their medics had received five people who were suffering from asphyxiation as a result of exposure to poisonous gas that was used by regime forces to shell the rebel-held district. The symptoms that appeared on the injured people included shortness of breath, vomiting, dizziness and poor vision, the statement said.
On Wednesday, Failaq Alrahman FSA group said that seven of its fighters suffered from asphyxiation after regime forces shelled the nearby town of Ayn Tarma with chlorine gas.
According to a report the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) issued on August 13, the Assad regime has not stopped using chemical weapons since it carried out the April 4 sarin attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rural Idlib. The Network said it had recorded five chemical weapons attacks launched by regime forces since April 4.
Activists in eastern Ghouta said that regime forces pounded Jobar and Ayn Tarma with at least 30 “Elephant” rockets, an improvised, indiscriminate weapon with enormous destructive power.
Regime forces also shelled the town of Kafarbatna with heavy artillery, injuring a number of civilians as well as destroying residential buildings and civilian property.
Regime forces, backed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah militia, violated the cease-fire agreement which took effect in eastern Ghouta on 9 PM on Friday. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)