MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Syrian government has never used chemical weapons in any form, the country’s information minister said in a broadcast shown by the state TV on Saturday.
Opposition activists within Syria and based abroad, who back the rebel groupings fighting to oust Assad from power, have claimed that over 130 people died in an alleged gas attack on rebel-held areas of Damascus on Wednesday.
“We have never used chemical weapons in Syria in any form, be it liquid or gas,” Omran al-Zohbi said.
Doctors Without Borders, an international medical charity working with hospitals in the Syrian capital, said earlier on Saturday that thousands of people were hospitalized in Damascus in less than three hours on August 21 with “neurotoxic symptoms.” According to information it has received, 355 of the 3,600 people treated reportedly died.
The charity group made clear that it cannot say with any certainty who or what caused these symptoms, but did say that this “strongly indicates mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent.”
The Syrian government and opposition forces have publicly denied using chemical weapons.
