Dozens Suffocate in Syria as Government Is Accused of Chemical Attack

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, sending a stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems to medical clinics, aid groups said on Sunday.

Medical and rescue groups blamed President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the assault on the suburb, east of the capital, Damascus, which took place after dusk on Saturday.

Foreign governments expressed alarm at the reports of an attack, and the British Foreign Office called for an urgent investigation, saying that if the use of chemical weapons proved to be true, “it is further proof of Assad’s brutality.”

Rescue workers reported finding at least 42 people dead in their homes from apparent suffocation, and antigovernment activists circulated videos of lifeless men, women and children sprawled on floors.

Douma is the last remaining town still controlled by rebels in the area, and the Syrian government has vowed to retake it. Many of the remaining residents have sought safety in basements, which could have made them more vulnerable to poisonous gases.

In a joint statement, the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports clinics in opposition areas of Syria, and the Syrian Civil Defense, the so-called White Helmets who rescue people in the wake of airstrikes, said the chemical attack occurred after a day of heavy bombardment by the Syrian military and its allies.

After the assault, more than 500 people went to medical centers “with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent,” the statement said, including trouble breathing, foaming at the mouth, burning eyes and the “emission of a chlorine-like odor.”

One person was dead on arrival at a clinic, six others died after they got there, and rescue workers reported finding more than 42 dead in their homes, the statement said. The people could not be evacuated because of strong odors and a lack of equipment.

“The reported symptoms indicate that the victims suffocated from the exposure to toxic chemicals,” the statement said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which did not confirm the use of chemical agents, said that 42 people, including women and children, had been killed, including 11 who suffocated in the basements of buildings that had collapsed on them. About 500 others were wounded in the bombardment and 70 had breathing troubles, the group said.

The United States government said it was working to verify whether chemical weapons had been used.

“The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable, and any further attacks prevented immediately,” a State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said in a statement. Ms. Nauert noted a sarin gas attack in April 2017 in northwestern Syria that the United States and the United Nations blamed on the Syrian government.

“The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks,” Ms. Nauert said.

Former President Barack Obama struggled with how to respond to such attacks in Syria. After declaring the use of chemical weapons a “red line,” Mr. Obama declined to respond militarily when a chemical attack by the Syrian government in 2013 killed hundreds of people near Damascus.

Instead, the United States and Russia reached an agreement that was to see Syria surrender its chemical weapons stockpiles and dismantle its capabilities to make new ones.

The agreement was celebrated at the time, but multiple chemical attacks since then have been blamed on the Syrian government, raising questions about how effective the agreement was.

Correction: April 8, 2018 

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of a State Department spokeswoman in two instances. She is Heather Nauert, not Nauret.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/08/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-attack-ghouta.html