AFP/Geneva
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A group of doctors working in war-torn Syria said yesterday its members had seen dozens of patients suffering from what they believe are chemical weapons attacks, saying the number seemed to be rising.
“We have dozens of cases of people hurt in what seems to be chemical attacks, especially civilians,” Tawfik Chamaa, a founding member of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM), told AFP.
The organisation, which has dozens of doctors in field hospitals across Syria, said 97% of the victims were civilians, and that the cases were mainly concentrated in the suburbs of Damascus.
Referring to a list of 34 suspected attacks, compiled by the group Syrian Human Rights Watch in Cairo, Chamaa said the attacks appeared mainly to be carried out by fighter jets, helicopters and long- and mid-range missiles.
“And it’s the regime that is in possession of these weapons,” said Chamaa, a Swiss doctor of Syrian origin, adding that the frequency of the attacks appeared to be accelerating.
“Since 2013, we have seen a huge increase in these attacks, and in recent days attacks with chemical weapons in the suburbs of Damascus are happening practically on a daily basis,” he said.
One of the group’s doctors, oncologist Mousa al-Kurdi, who works in Cambridge in Britain, told reporters in Geneva that he had seen four patients first hand who he was certain were suffering from a chemical attack.
The four, all from the same family, had been brought to his field hospital from their home in Saraqeb, where a total of 26 people were injured and four died in a suspected sarin attack on April 29, according to Syrian Human Rights Watch.