Syrian government blamed for "chemical weapons attack"

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least five people have been killed in a suspected chemical weapons attack outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, opposition activists say, according to BBC News.

The victims reportedly suffocated to death after government rockets and barrel bombs struck the rebel-held suburb of Muadhamiya on Tuesday, December 22.

Purported videos of the aftermath of the attack show several bodies with no visible external injuries.

But one security source denied that the military had used chemical weapons.

Hundreds were killed when rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at Muadhamiya and other Damascus suburbs in 2013. Western powers said only the government could have been responsible, but it blamed the rebels.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, said 10 people had died after "rockets loaded with chemicals" were fired at Muadhamiya on Tuesday night, while a local activist told the Associated Press that five were killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that the government's bombardment of the suburb with barrel bombs and rockets had killed or wounded 28 people, with all but five suffering breathing difficulties, BBC says.