Adonis Diaries

Chemical attacks in Syria? Is it a matter of point of view or point of attack?

It seems that not many people are sure that hundreds in Syrians were target of chemical attacks.

Photos show the dead and injured, and videos are backing claims of mass murder events.

Is it a point of view or point of attack that are blurring the lines between reality and fiction?

I decided to posts two articles, representing the pro-Syrian government media and another voicing the opinion of the “insurgents”

Syria: Chemical Attack in Ghouta “an Accident Caused by Free Syrian Army”

The attack that killed over 200 people in the Damascus suburbs could be an accident caused by a riot control agent, and those responsible may be a faction of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and not the Assad regime, according to a chemical weapons specialist.

Syrian opposition activists claim that rockets loaded with toxic agents were launched towards the suburbs of the Ghouta region at 3 am, killing more than 570 people, mostly women and children. Horrific footage of people being treated in makeshift hospitals and many children suffocating, having convulsions or laying immobile emerged on social media.

Gwyn Winfield, editorial director at CBRNe World, a magazine specializing in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive weapons, told IBTimes UK that it is difficult to identify an agent by the signs and symptoms alone.

“It can be a riot control agent, like in the recent Egyptian case of the tear gas used in the back of a van that killed 36 prisoners. We have the same symptoms in the children and casualties.”

Symptoms of those hit by the attack include nausea, hallucinations, suffocation, hard coughing, high blood pressure, seizures and a post-death gargle, according to Syrian blogger Enas, from Amman in Jordan.

In response to the initial reports, the Syrian government has denied that chemical weapons were used.

Winfield said he finds it “suspicious” that in the week UN inspectors enter the country with the acquiescence of Assad, the Government welcomes them with a chemical weapons missile barrage.

“It is not impossible that some faction in the Free Syrian Army did it to get attention, or maybe it was an accident by an inexperienced operator who may have not realized what he was doing.”

The security expert said there are numerous cases of riot agent used in a lethal way, for example in confined spaces and not to disperse a crowd.

He added that the idea that the FSA is single and unified is “a myth,” because “there are different factions and something like that could be a win/win for them: launch the attack and raise amount of profile of their cause by the UN.”

Winfield said that more than 570 victims, if confirmed, are a lot of people in a not densely populated area. “It means the attack targeted a large area and it is not an isolated incident. If there are 570 fatalities it would suggest that evidence of what it is will not be hard to find.”

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer at the UK’s Joint Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Regiment, told the BBC’s Today program that the footage was “horrific” and agreed that it would be “very difficult to stage-manage”.

The UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he is “concerned” by reports of a chemical attack…

The Revolting Syrian posted:

Aug 21, 2013 – At approximately 3:00 am in Damascus, a year to the day after Obama’s infamous “red line” speech warning Assad about using chemical weapons, and as a specialized UN inspection team sleep in their hotels in Damascus, ostensibly there to investigate a CW attack 6 months ago, Assad launched his largest, most wide scale and most deadly attack using chemical weapons on the Damascus suburbs of Zamallaka and Ein Turma in the Eastern Ghouta area.

The fallout from the attack was also felt in many of the surrounding districts.