Fighters from the Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al-Sham, and Suqoor al-Shab took control of the Ariha area in Idlib, including a National Defense Fort. State TV claimed that a number of soldiers had suffocated after finding chemical weapon materials in “terrorist” tunnels in Jobar; some of the items allegedly found bore Qatari and Saudi labels. A medical aid group said Damascus hospitals recently treated about 3,600 patients with “neurotoxic symptoms,” and that 355 of them died. UN Under Secretary General Angela Kane arrived in Damascus for talks about setting up the UN chemical weapons inquiry.
