Six killed in Syrian chemical attack, claim rebels

A group monitoring the Syrian civil war said government forces had carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest, and medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.

A Syrian military source described the report of an attack in the village of Sarmin in Idlib province as propaganda. “We confirm that we would not use this type of weapon, and we don’t need to use it,” the source said.

President Bashar al-Assad’s government has previously denied accusations that it has used chemical weapons in the four-year-old war. Officials were not available for comment. An army statement said dozens of militants were killed in other areas of Idlib province overnight in clashes and attacks.