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A British doctor has been killed by a bomb as he treated wounded civilians at a makeshift hospital.

‘Inspirational’ Dr Isa Abdur Rahman, 26, had left his position at London’s Royal Free Hospital to volunteer with a British charity in Syria.

The married doctor - who has been described as ‘kind and deeply caring’ - was injured when a shell hit the clinic in Idlib province.

Dr Rahman died shortly afterwards.

Two other civilians died and two more people were wounded by the attack, which charity Hand in Hand for Syria has blamed on government forces.

Dr Rahman’s devastated wife, parents and siblings were too upset to speak in the wake of the tragedy.

The 26-year-old, described as ‘brave’ and ‘dedicated’ by the founder of the charity, was from north west London, and trained at Imperial College before taking up a post at the Royal Free.

He flew to Syria a year ago after deciding to put his skills to use helping civilians caught up in fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels seeking to oust his regime in an almost three year bitter conflict which has claimed 70,000 lives.

Faddy Sahloul, the chairman and founder of Hand in Hand for Syria, remembered him as “one of the bravest and most dedicated people I have met”.

Today it was claimed forces loyal to Assad have repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebel fighters in Damascus.

A French newspaper said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days after an attack.

Assad’s government and the rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons.

A French reporter and photographer said they had witnessed battlefield chemical attacks and had also talked to doctors and other witnesses of their aftermath.

They describe men coughing violently, their eyes burning, their pupils shrinking.

“Soon they experience difficulty breathing, sometimes in the extreme; they begin to vomit or lose consciousness,” it was reported in Le Monde.

A pro-government Syrian TV correspondent was killed today while covering clashes near the border with Lebanon.

Yara Abbas, a prominent female war reporter for state-owned Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was attacked by rebel sniper fire near the military air base of Dabaa in the central province of Homs, the ministry said.