Suffering in  Syrian rebels claim pro-government forces used chemical weapons to kill citizens outside (CNN) -- The videos and photographs are numbered in the dozens, every one of them telling a fragment of a terrible story: toddlers breathing their last gasp, the bodies of children laid out in rows and covered in blocks of ice, their faces pale and expressionless. Elsewhere, dozens of white shrouds appear to hold the corpses of adults, the names of the victims written hurriedly on the cloth. There was some sort of ghastly event in the suburbs of But there are as many questions as answers. The victims showed no sign of injury; there was none of the bloodshed associated with artillery attacks, no wounded, dust-covered people being dug from buildings reduced to ruins. It was impossible to know how many had died and exactly where or why. By the end of the day, the Local Coordination Committees were reporting that more than 1,300 people had been killed in areas around Even by the standards of Mistrust between Accusations fly Opposition activists almost immediately alleged President Bashar al-Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against districts long controlled by rebel groups. It is not the first such allegation; some activists were soon claiming the regime had used sarin, a nerve agent that it is widely thought to possess. Residents spoke of dizziness and choking, convulsions and difficulty breathing, which would be consistent with the symptoms of sarin poisoning. But some victims appeared to have died in their sleep, undisturbed, according to local reports. The Syrian government dismissed the claims of chemical weapons being used as "disillusioned and fabricated." Some opposition activists say the toxin used may have been "Agent 15," also known as BZ. Its full name is 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, and it affects both the peripheral and central nervous systems. The opposition claimed that BZ was used in tank shells fired in the city of Physicians for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, says that BZ induces a "severely altered mental status (hallucinations, giddiness, confusion); lack of secretions -- dry mucous membranes, dry mouth, eyes, skin; dilated pupils, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting." But the reports from Perhaps more significant is an account from the spring of this year, when Jean-Philippe Remy from the French newspaper Le Monde spent weeks in and around Jobar, the opposition-held district on the edge of Damascus that saw many of the casualties early Wednesday. "No odor, no smoke, not even a whistle to indicate the release of a toxic gas," he reported "And then the symptoms appear. The men cough violently. Their eyes burn, their pupils shrink, their vision blurs. Soon they experience difficulty breathing, sometimes in the extreme; they begin to vomit or lose consciousness." "The people who arrive have trouble breathing," a doctor told Le Monde. "They've lost their hearing, they cannot speak, their respiratory muscles have been inert. If we don't give them immediate emergency treatment, death ensues." "In Jobar, the fighters did not desert their positions, but those who stayed on the front lines -- with constricted pupils and wheezing breath," Remy reported. Syrian refugees stream into Outsiders unsure of the cause Independent experts who studied Wednesday's videos were unsure of the cause. Gwyn Winfield, editorial director at the magazine CBRNe World -- which reports on chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosives use -- analyzed the videos and wrote on the magazine's site: "Clearly respiratory distress, some nerve spasms and a half-hearted washdown (involving water and bare hands?), but it could equally be a riot control agent as a (chemical warfare agent)." The allegations that some sort of chemical weapons were used came amid an ongoing government assault on rebel-held areas around Some analysts speculated that a stockpile of chemical agents may have been hit by shelling, whether controlled by the rebels or the regime. But that would not explain the number of neighborhoods -- some several miles apart -- where the same symptoms were reported among victims. U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Damascus There is also the question of motive and timing, if regime forces were responsible. Just a few miles from those terrible scenes, a team of United Nations chemical weapons inspectors -- led by a well-qualified Swede -- were asleep at their hotel. But the terms of the inspectors' visit are tightly prescribed; they are only permitted to visit three sites where chemical weapons are alleged to have been used in the past. Government forces did not appear to be in imminent danger of being overrun by rebel factions in the areas concerned; in fact, many observers believe a bloody stalemate has set in around Would it also have risked using an agent as lethal as sarin just a few kilometers from the heart of The European Union believes the Syrian government was the most likely culprit. "We have seen with grave concern the reports of the possible use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, said the EU's Foreign Policy chief, Catherine Ashton."Such accusations should be immediately and thoroughly investigated." The White House made a very similar statement. In a familiar ritual, Some observers also point to claims on jihadist websites that rebels have seized chemical weapons equipment after overrunning government bases such as one outside Supporters of the Assad government claim that Wednesday's reports are very convenient for the opposition as it tries to spur the international community to action just as events in Little hope for change George Sabra, president of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of Assad opponents, said in Istanbul: "It's not the first time in which the regime used chemical weapons ... but it presents a move by the regime, because they are doing it with impunity....The United Nations will be puzzled, and the U.S. will announce more red lines, and will leave it in the air." Given the stated positions of the great powers, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council seems unlikely to prompt decisive international action. Perhaps the world will never know whether the events of August 21, 2013, around Source: CNN |
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