UN to investigate potential war crimes after dozens were killed in Idlib attack US says 'cannot be ignored'.
A suspected chemical attack in Syria has drawn international condemnation, with the United States, France and Britain all pointing the finger at President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
At least 58 people, including 11 children, were killed in the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province on Tuesday, doctors and a monitor said.
The United Nations said it would investigate the bombing raid as a possible war crime, and an emergency Security Council meeting was scheduled for Wednesday .
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some to foam from the mouth, citing medical sources who described the symptoms as signs that gas was used.
Local health workers said the death toll could rise and eventually reach 100. A member of the White Helmets, a rescue group that operates in rebel-held areas, told Al Jazeera that up to 300 people had been injured.
The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition group, accused government planes of carrying out the attack, and said they used a gas similar to sarin.
Syria's military denied the accusation in a statement, saying the army "denies using any toxic or chemical agents in Khan Sheikhoun today, and it did not and never will use it anywhere".
Syria's military denied the accusation in a statement, saying the army "denies using any toxic or chemical agents in Khan Sheikhoun today, and it did not and never will use it anywhere".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply disturbed" by the attack, his spokesman said, adding that the United Nations was "currently not in a position to independently verify these reports".
It would mark the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of civilians in Ghouta near the capital in August 2013. Western states said the Syrian government was responsible for the 2013 attack. Damascus blamed rebels.
The Edlib Media Centre, a pro-opposition group, posted images on Tuesday's attack that were widely shared on social media, showing people being treated by medics and what appeared to be dead people, many of them children.
Locals said the attack began in the early morning, when they heard planes in the sky followed by a series of loud explosions, after which people very quickly began to show symptoms. They said they could not identify the planes. Both Syrian and Russian jets have bombed the area before.
This is the aftermath of a suspected chemical gas attack in Syria's Idlib.
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