BEIRUT -- At least 15 children died after receiving vaccinations in rebel-held parts of northwestern Syria, while the death toll from two days of government airstrikes on a central city climbed to nearly 50, activists said.
The children, some just babies, all exhibited signs of "severe allergic shock" about an hour after they were given a second round of measles vaccinations in Idlib province Tuesday, with many suffocating to death as their bodies swelled, said physician Abdullah Ajaj, who administered the vaccinations in a medical center in the town of Jarjanaz.
It was unclear what killed the children, but Ajaj said in an interview via Skype that they all exhibited the same symptoms to varying degrees. He said it was the first time he had ever seen such a reaction to vaccinations.
"There was shouting and screaming. It was hard for the parents. You get your child vaccinated and then you find your child dying; it's very hard," Ajaj said. There weren't enough respirators in the clinic, making the situation even worse, he added.
Syria's conflict, now in its fourth year, has caused the collapse of its health system in contested areas, scattering medics, destroying clinics and making medicines and equipment difficult to obtain. Nationwide vaccination efforts have been thrown into disarray, and polio re-emerged in parts of Syria last year.
The Western-backed opposition based in Turkey said it had suspended the second round of measles vaccinations, which began Monday. The campaign was meant to target 60,000 children. In a statement, it said the vaccines used Tuesday met international standards and did not say what may have caused the deaths.
It is extremely unlikely that the vaccinations killed the children, said Beirut-based public health specialist Fouad Fouad, who said spoiled vaccinations were more or less harmless.
"It cannot cause death," he said.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the U.N. Children's Fund and the World Health Organization are "deeply concerned" and awaiting further clarification.
"Measles is a major threat to children in Syria and the campaigns are vital ... and especially important for children who've been away from their homes and communities and are living in camps or in other unsanitary conditions," Haq said.
The U.N. says more than 190,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011. The revolt began with peaceful protests but escalated into an insurgency and set off a civil war after government forces waged a crackdown on dissent.
In the latest violence, Syrian government airstrikes killed some 50 people in the opposition-held city of Talbiseh this week in an apparent attempt to target a rebel commander, activists said Wednesday. The dead included a mother and her five children, who were crushed under the rubble, and a rebel commander and several fighters, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, said it counted 48 killed in two days of strikes Monday and Tuesday in Talbiseh. Similar information was reported by a local Talbiseh activist collective. Both groups said the death toll was likely to exceed 50, because residents were still pulling bodies from the rubble.
State-run media said Tuesday that the army targeted a meeting of "terrorists" in Talbiseh, the term the government uses to refer to all the rebels. The Observatory said leading members of a rebel group were killed, without providing further details.
The Syrian government has stepped up its bombardment of opposition-held areas of the country over the past week.
An airstrike Tuesday on the northern town of Deir Simbul killed the daughter of a powerful rebel leader who has ties to the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition.
Jamal Maarouf, the head of the rebel Syrian Revolutionaries Front, said in a video released Wednesday that his daughter as well as a member of his group were killed a day earlier in a series of government air raids.
Maarouf said his group also has been subjected to a wave of bombing attacks by the Islamic State extremist group over the past five days, and that his fighters had killed four would-be suicide attackers. He vowed to forge ahead in his group's two-front fight against the government and the extremists.
Meanwhile, gunmen crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon and captured a Lebanese soldier Wednesday.
Kamal al-Hujairi was visiting his parents' farm on the outskirts of the town of Arsal when he was snatched by gunmen, a Lebanese military official said on condition of anonymity.
The state-run National News Agency confirmed the kidnapping and said the militants also stole several cows from the farm.
It was the first kidnapping along the border since Aug. 2, when Islamic militants crossed into Lebanon and captured more than 20 soldiers and police.
At least eight of the men are being held by the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate, the Nusra Front. Others are being detained by the Islamic State, which has beheaded two. The killings angered many Lebanese and sparked days of violence against Syrian refugees in the country.
Lebanon is negotiating for the men's release through mediation by officials from Qatar.
The Nusra Front is demanding the release of accused Islamic militants from Lebanese detention. They also are demanding that the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group stop fighting in Syria alongside Assad's forces.
Information for this article was contributed by Edith M. Lederer and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/18/2014