BEIRUT: Syrian state media said on Thursday rebels had used "poisonous substances" against Syrian troops east of Damascus on Wednesday, without specifying the type of chemical used.
The spokesman for Jaish al Islam, a dominant rebel faction in the area, said the government was lying.
The statement did not say which groups it believed carried out the attack. The Syrian government refers to all factions fighting against it as terrorists.
State media broadcast footage of soldiers wearing oxygen masks struggling to breathe while being given first aid by other military personnel.
"They had difficulty breathing, a feeling of almost paralysis and an increase in saliva in the mouth," a Syrian soldier told state television.
Another soldier, interviewed in hospital, said a "smoke bomb" landed and then he started to feel the symptoms.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict now in its sixth year, said it had no information about the reports.
Reuters
