http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/world/middleeast/syria-attack-peace-plan.html 2016-09-07 15:13:35 Doctors in Syria Tend to Scores of Gas Attack Victims More than 120 people were sickened in Aleppo. Separately, rebels in London described their vision for a political transition. === BEIRUT, Lebanon — As rebel negotiators unveiled a new plan on Wednesday for a political transition in Syria, doctors in the city of Aleppo were still treating people in intensive care after a suspected chlorine gas attack that sickened more than 120 people, including 10 women and 37 children. At least one man died in the attack, which witnesses said was carried out by government forces in the rebel-held section of Aleppo. Rescuers and citizen journalists who responded to the scene said via text message that there was a strong smell of bleach. Medical staff described seeing symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, sneezing, irritation of the eyes, nausea and in some cases respiratory failure. Those symptoms are consistent with chlorine, which can kill in high concentrations. In London, the Syrian oppositions’ negotiating body, the High Negotiations Committee, presented a new vision of a political transition to end the civil war, now in its sixth year. The group said that it would preserve the human rights of all Syrians and the institutions of the state, including the military, seeking to avoid the mistakes made by the United States occupation in Iraq. That means having a military council made up of both pro-government and opposition figures, and no wholesale purges, with punishment only for those directly responsible for crimes. The committee’s leader, Riyad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister who defected after the crackdown on protests that began in 2011, laid out the plan in London at a meeting of countries supporting the opposition. He said that the group could talk with members of President Bashar al-Assad’s government but that at the end of the negotiation process, Mr. Assad should leave office — a proposal that fails to resolve an impasse with Russia and the Assad government, which insist that can stay in office during a political transition. The attack came three years after the Syrian government agreed to give up its chemical weapons program under a deal brokered by the United States and Russia. It also accompanied several days of intense aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo by government and allied Russian forces that have continued as Russian and American diplomats seek to negotiate a cease-fire deal. There was no independent confirmation of who carried out the attack or that chlorine was used; the Assad government and its armed opponents have accused one another of using chlorine as a weapon of war. A recent United Nations report determined that the government and the militant group Islamic State have used chemical weapons on several occasions. In Aleppo, the forces fighting the government range from United States-backed groups to others until recently officially affiliated with Al Qaeda. The Islamic State is not a player in the city. The attack took place in the Sukari district, residents said. The first reported death was that of Abdulkareem Afefa, 29. Numerous videos and photos that doctors, rescuers and witnesses shared online showed men, women and children being treated with oxygen. Abdelkafi al-Hamdo, an activist and citizen journalist who filmed the aftermath, said that when he arrived some time after the attack, the fumes were still so strong that he could not catch his breath, adding, “I couldn’t speak to the camera without a mask.” He said that some people at the scene had reached such a level of despair — having concluded that publicizing such attacks brings no help from the outside world and may bring more danger — that they tried to stop him from filming. “Some people think that if they told the world that they are being killed, Assad will drop many weapons on them,” he said. He said that people have told him they believe the government is targeting civilians to make them flee and that showing many civilian victims makes the area a good target for the next attack. “The message from Assad and Russia is this — ‘You have to accept my conditions or die,’ ” he said. The sputtering negotiations over a cease-fire include a Russian proposal for civilians to leave the area; residents fear they will never be allowed back. Russia and the government say that civilians have been taken hostage by the fighters in rebel-held areas. “Nothing, just chemical once again, don’t worry, don’t be sad, it is normal,” Aref al-Aref, an anti-government activist with the Aleppo Media Center, said in a sarcastic text message as he shared his photographs of victims. In 2013, after sarin gas attacks killed more than 1,000 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing militarily enforceable sanctions for any party using chemical weapons in Syria. But Russia has blocked the use of those sanctions against the Syrian government, which denies it was responsible. Under threat of United States retaliation for the sarin attacks, the government agreed to eliminate its previously secret chemical weapons program. Chlorine gas is not listed as a banned chemical weapon in the international Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria agreed to join under the agreement, but its use as a military weapon is banned under international law.