Feb 16, 2018

Six men were treated for breathing difficulties in the main hospital in Afrin in Syria late Friday after shelling by a Turkish-led offensive on their village, a medical source and a monitor said.

Jiwan Mohammad, the general director of the Afrin hospital, said six men had arrived to the emergency room with "difficulty breathing, coughing, and burning all over the body."

"We have treated them and are observing them now. We kept their clothes for testing," Mohammad told AFP, adding that their symptoms were in line with exposure to toxic agents.

He said they had arrived in civilian cars from Al-Sheikh Hadid, west of the town of Afrin, and had told medics there was shelling on their village.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have waged a nearly month-long offensive against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which controls the Afrin region.