Story highlights Abdul Hamid Youssef lost his wife and 9-month-old twins in attack on Syrian village

Bashar al-Assad's regime accused of using illegal chemical weapons

Images of Youssef cradling his dead babies have been shared widely around the world

This story contains graphic imagery.

(CNN) Abdul Hamid Youssef says the attack shook him from a deep sleep.

He awoke, finding it difficult to breathe.

Leaping from bed, Youssef scrambled to make sure his 9-month-old twins were still alive. Apparently unharmed, he passed them to his wife and told her to stay in the house.

Rushing outside to check on his parents next door, Youssef passed people staggering and falling in the street.

Youssef and many members of his extended family live on the northern edge of Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Syria's Idlib province. On Tuesday, airstrikes battered an area near their local bakery, meters from Youssef's home.

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