The Syrian government strongly denies responsibility.
The death toll from a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town has risen to 86, 30 of them children, a monitoring group said today.
"There were also 20 women among the dead and the death toll could rise further because there are people missing," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The UN Security Council met Wednesday to debate a Western-drafted resolution condemning the air strike.
But Moscow, which holds a veto, defended its Damascus ally saying that while Syrian aircraft had carried out a strike, the chemicals were part of a "terrorist" stockpile of "toxic substances" that had been hit on the ground.
Rebel groups led by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front vowed revenge for Tuesday's (April 4, 2017) strike in the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province in the northwest.
US President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike on a Syrian air base on Thursday, April 6, in retaliation for a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States fired dozens of missiles on Friday at a Syrian airbase from which it said the chemical attack was launched. Washington has blamed the Khan Sheikhoun attack on Syrian government forces.
The Syrian government strongly denies responsibility.
So far 7 people have been reported dead from the US strike, of which 5 were servicemen and 2 civilians.
(With agency inputs)
1. Children face the brunt
)
A man carries the body of a dead child, after a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria.
Image courtesy: Reuters
2. Khan Sheikhoun town
)
A still image taken from a video posted to a social media website on April 4, 2017, shows a boy lying on the ground said to be in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Syria.
Image courtesy: Reuters
3. Pile of bodies
)
People lying on the ground after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in rebel-held Idlib, Syria.
Image courtesy: Reuters
4. Syrian doctors treat a child
)
The suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people on Tuesday, Syrian opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country's six-year civil war.
This photo shows Syrian doctors treating a child following a suspected chemical attack, at a makeshift hospital, in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria.
(Image courtesy: Edlib Media Center for PTI)
5. Over 86 dead
)
Men stand near the bodies of those who died in a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria.
Image courtesy: Reuters
6. Site of the attack
)
A crater is seen at the site of an air strike.
Image courtesy: Reuters
7. Battling for breath
)
A civil defence member breathes through an oxygen mask.
Image courtesy: Reuters
8. A Syrian child receives treatment
)
An unconscious Syrian child receives treatment at a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province.
Image courtesy: AFP
9. US military strike
)
In this image released by the US Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea on April 7, 2017.
US President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike on a Syrian air base on Thursday in retaliation for a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on President Bashar al-Assad. The missiles were fired from the USS Porter and the USS Ross, which belong to the US Navy's Sixth Fleet and are located in the eastern Mediterranean.
Image courtesy: Reuters
