Ghouta poison gas attacks

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US government map of areas where chemical weapons were used on August 21.

The Ghouta poison gas attacks of August 21, 2013 during the Syrian War are a series of poison gas attacks on rebel-held and controversial areas in the Ghouta region east of Damascus . A UN investigation on site showed the use of the chemical warfare agent sarin in a highly concentrated form, which was fired by means of surface-to-surface missiles . According to various statements, 281, 355, 1429 or 1729 people died. Several thousand people are said to have been admitted to the hospitals with neurotoxic reactions. Because of its chemical trace elements, the sarin used in the poison gas attack came from the same stocks of the Syrian army as that used in other attacks. Which civil war party is responsible for the use of the poison gas is still a matter of dispute.

overview

On the 2nd anniversary of the poison gas attacks, this girl in Hanover remembered the attacks with a mask.

While opposition activists hold the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad responsible for the incident, it denied reports of the use of chemical weapons . She later confirmed the incident itself, but stated that the chemical warfare agents had been used by the rebels against government forces and not the other way around.

At the time of the attack, a UN commission of experts was just a few kilometers away to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in three other locations in Syria. After an investigation was approved by the Syrian government, a UN commission of inquiry was able to speak to doctors, examine some victims and collect samples.

The US expressed its conviction that the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the incident, and other states such as France, Great Britain, Israel and Germany made similar statements.

The Russian Federation and Iran , however, suggested that rebel groups were responsible for the attack.

While the German government demanded clear consequences, but ruled out a military operation without an international mandate, US President Barack Obama announced on August 31 that he had decided to launch an attack. Great Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron announced after a vote in the House of Commons in which a military operation was rejected, he wanted to refrain from the possibility of a military intervention. France and Saudi Arabia would support a military strike.

background

At the time of the attack, Syria was one of five states that had neither signed nor ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention . In July 2012, the Syrian government first admitted that it had chemical weapons, but at the same time announced that it would only use them in the event of an attack by another state. On August 20, 2012 - almost exactly one year before the attack - US President Obama described the use of biological or chemical weapons as a “red line”, and if this is exceeded, military intervention by the USA would be considered. A few days later, the Arab League blamed Syrian government troops for a massacre that allegedly used poison gas.

In the following months, both the rebels and the Syrian government repeatedly claimed that the other side had used chemical warfare agents. The government accused the rebels of killing at least 25 people with chemical weapons in the city of Khan al Assal near Aleppo in March 2013 . A total of 13 chemical weapons use was reported to the UN. After lengthy negotiations, at the end of July 2013, Bashar al-Assad permitted an investigation of three of the 13 alleged locations by a UN expert commission. However, the deployment of the inspectors was delayed because the Syrian government was unable to provide sufficient guarantees for the safety of the UN representatives. In addition, the UN declared at the beginning of the negotiations that the clarification of the question of guilt would not be part of the investigation, but only the question of whether chemical weapons were used at all.

Pronouncements

opposition

According to opposition media, the attacks began around 3 a.m. in a rebel-controlled area of Ghouta in eastern Damascus , and an attack on rebel positions in the suburbs of Damascus was reported as early as the morning of August 21. The warheads of the missiles that were shot at the rebels contained poison gas. According to first eyewitness reports, dozens of people died as a result of the poison gas. The attacks took place in the eastern districts of Hammuriyah, Hirista, Irbin, Sepqa, Kafr Batna, Ayn Tarma, Jobar and Zamalka and in the western district of Muadhamiyah. Witnesses remembered noises that did not sound like explosions, but reminded one of the bursting of a water tank or the opening of a lemonade bottle. Then they would have smelled a smell similar to that of chlorine or onions. Rebel fighters used their radios to warn of warfare agents, and loudspeakers on the minaret of a mosque prompted residents to flee or to seek shelter on the roofs of their houses. However, many fled to their cellars, where the heavy gas accumulated and claimed numerous victims.

Syrian government

The Syrian government described the first reports of the use of chemical weapons as fictitious and initially only admitted that they had fired conventional weapons at some of the affected areas. She later confirmed a chemical warfare incident, but claimed that it was the rebels who used the chemical weapons against government forces. The state broadcaster SANA reported that government troops had discovered a rebel chemical weapons depot and that some soldiers had suffocated. In the days that followed, the areas in question were repeatedly subjected to heavy bombardment and rocket fire, making it difficult to prove the use of chemical weapons.

Organization Doctors Without Borders

According to the organization Doctors Without Borders , 3,600 people with neurotoxic symptoms were admitted to three hospitals within three hours, of which 355 died. A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army reported 1,729 dead and 6,000 injured. Among the victims are numerous women and children, some of whom were surprised in their sleep. Photos and numerous videos showed corpses lined up with foam at the mouth and nose and mostly without visible external injuries. Many of them were not or only lightly dressed. According to a doctor, the victims' symptoms ranged from unconsciousness to foam in the nose and mouth, severely constricted pupils, rapid heartbeat and breathing problems that ultimately led to suffocation. The organization Doctors Without Borders also reported the massive occurrence of typical neurotoxic symptoms such as cramps, severely constricted pupils and shortness of breath . The patients would be treated with atropine , which MSF had already distributed to hospitals as a precaution .

U.S. government

The US government is “almost certain” assuming a nerve gas attack by the Syrian government. The US government said 426 children were among the 1,429 victims of the attack. She based her allegation against the Syrian government on various pieces of evidence that her intelligence services reportedly collected. In addition to publicly available material, corresponding pronouncements also referred to secret information that was only made available to the US Congress. These include tapped conversations between the Syrian Ministry of Defense and the head of the chemical weapons unit.

Russia, Iran, Seymour Hersh and the Turkish opposition

The Russian Federation and Iran, however, suggested that rebel groups were responsible for the attack. It is illogical that the Syrian president ordered such an attack, while he was almost certain to fear an international reaction. Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that it would be illogical for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons at the very time that UN investigators were in the country. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated on September 26, 2013 that the gas attack on August 21 was carried out with "homemade" war gas. Russia had already announced something similar about the warfare agents that were used on March 19.

The US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh came to a similar conclusion when he spoke to a number of intelligence officials who were frustrated and angry about what they saw as one-sided representation by the US government. A conversation partner felt reminded of the construction of the Casus Belli by the Tonkin incident of 1964. In April 2014, Hersh published further research, according to which the US military intelligence agency Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had indicated in June 2013 in a top secret paper that there was a group of terrorists within the Al-Nusra Front , who were trained in the production of poison gas and were supported by agents from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. There was rumor within the US secret services, because there was apparently enough evidence to suggest that the Al-Nusra front, ideologically based in Al-Qaeda , had carried out the false flag attack to provoke a US invasion. Some US intelligence officials decided to speak to Hersh. Both the Washington and Ankara governments rejected these reports. The US government remains in no doubt that the poison gas attack was carried out by the Assad government. The British network activist Eliot Higgins ( Bellingcat ) and the former officer of the US Army Chemical Corps Dan Kaszetta also criticized Hersh's publications, their criticism mainly referring to what they considered dubious sources on which Hersh's argument was based.

The members of the Turkish parliament of the opposition party CHP Eren Erdem and Ali Şeker supported the thesis and blamed the Turkish secret service and jihadist militias on the basis of court files from the Adana public prosecutor's office. At a press conference on October 21, 2015, they said they had evidence that the MKE , the Turkish secret service and the al-Qaida terrorist Hayyam Kasap were involved in the procurement and delivery . The goal of the Turkish government was the same as with the illegal transfer of weapons to the same opposition groups: to topple Bashar al-Assad, Erdem told Today's Zaman , one of Turkey's major daily newspapers.

On December 10, 2015, during a parliamentary session, Erdem stated that he had evidence, including telephone records, that the Turkish government was involved in the smuggling of sarin gas components and sarin gas across the Turkish border to terrorist groups in Syria. Four days later, Erdem repeated his allegations on the Russian state news channel Russia Today , according to which court files show that the material used for the poison gas had reached terrorist groups in Syria via Turkey - at that time they were members of al-Qaeda in Iraq . "We have phone records as evidence". The public prosecutor's office opened an investigation, and the people involved were later arrested. However, after a week, the case was turned over to another prosecutor and all those arrested were released. They crossed the Turkish-Syrian border and fled. At that time, the files were closed to put the blame on the Syrian authorities. The Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office initiated proceedings against Eren Erdem for “high treason”.

UN investigations

On September 16, 2013, the UN report was presented in which the use of the nerve agent sarin, which was fired with surface-to-surface missiles, was presented. The tests took place in German, Finnish, Swedish and Swiss laboratories.

A UN commission had already arrived a few days before the attack to investigate three other alleged sites of chemical weapons deployments. It was only a few kilometers away at the time of the attack. However, the Syrian government initially refused to allow the inspectors to examine the areas affected by the attack.

On the morning of August 26, 2013, the commission succeeded in speaking to doctors, examining some victims and taking blood and soil samples. The UN experts left Syria on August 31st and returned from Beirut, Lebanon, to the OPCW headquarters in The Hague in an aircraft chartered by the German government .

consequences

After the US announced that it was in possession of intelligence evidence that the Syrian government was responsible for the use of poison gas, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the existence of such evidence. He warned the US of a military strike and asked them to submit the evidence to the UN. Meanwhile, the UK House of Commons voted against military intervention on August 29.

On August 31, 2013, US President Barack Obama announced the conduct of a military operation in response to the incident. The deployment should be limited in time and not be carried out with ground troops. As the chief commander of the armed forces , he has already decided in favor of the attack, but wants to wait for the decision of the US Congress , which will deal with the matter from 9 September, in order to give his decision more weight. He left the exact time of deployment open.

On September 9, 2013, Russia took up a statement from US Secretary of State John Kerry and proposed that Syria bring its chemical weapons stocks under international control and then destroy them.

In a speech on September 10, 2013, US President Barack Obama gave diplomacy more time. He asked the US Congress to postpone the decision on a military strike. Military action is not yet off the table, but Obama made it clear: first all diplomatic means must be exhausted and support Russia's mediation efforts in the Syrian conflict.

The Syrian government agreed to have its chemical weapons stocks completely destroyed and joined the Chemical Weapons Convention on September 14, 2013 . The destruction of chemical weapons was regulated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 . On November 15, 2013, the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons passed a resolution on the plan to destroy Syrian chemical weapons. Resolution 2118 authorized the member states of the United Nations to participate in the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons. On June 23, 2014, the chemical weapons declared by Syria were handed over to a Danish and a Norwegian container ship in the port of Latakia . Some of the chemical weapons were brought directly to the United States and the United Kingdom for destruction. The remaining Syrian chemical weapons were neutralized by hydrolysis on board the Cape Ray on the high seas in the eastern Mediterranean between July 7, 2014 and August 18, 2014 . The raw materials were then transported to Finland and Germany. On January 4, 2016, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed that the destruction of all chemical weapons declared by Syria, with the removal of 75 hydrogen fluoride cylinders at a facility in Texas, was complete.

International reactions
  • GermanyGermany Germany - Angela Merkel announced that Germany was not pursuing a military solution. According to British Prime Minister David Cameron , he and Merkel have "little doubt" about the guilt of the Syrian government. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for consequences in the event that the reports on the use of poison gas by the Assad government were to be confirmed. However, he left open which consequences could be considered in detail. He only emphasized that a political solution would be sought. Germany announced on September 7th that it supported a declaration calling for a clear international reaction against the government of President Assad.
  • FranceFrance France - Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius already announced on August 21 a "reaction of strength", if the suspicion of the use of poison gas should be confirmed. However, he ruled out a ground offensive. He later stated that the information currently available indicates that Assad's government was responsible for the massacre. President François Hollande announced on August 31 that he would join the American President's announcement of a brief military strike on the same day, but would still await the decisions of the American and French parliaments.
  • IranIran Iran - Iran warned the US against military intervention on August 25. This has "serious consequences for the White House". The poison gas attacks were described as an attempt by "terrorists" to escalate the situation. Iranian President Hassan Rohani condemned the poison gas attacks and at the same time called on the international community to be prudent; he warned against adventurism in this region, which would have irreversible consequences for regional and global stability. Revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei described a US intervention as a "disaster for the Middle East" and harmful to the US.
  • IsraelIsrael Israel - Minister for Strategic Affairs and Intelligence, Yuval Steinitz , reiterated Israel's view that the attack had originated from the Syrian government, "and of course not for the first time." President Shimon Peres called for the "chemical weapons to be eliminated from Syria". To fend off a retaliatory strike by Syria that might follow an attack by the United States, Israel deployed missile defense systems and deployed troops to the Syrian border.
  • RussiaRussia Russia - During the poison gas attack in March, Russia warned against prejudging the Syrian government and, after conducting its own investigations, blamed the rebels for the incident. The Russian Foreign Ministry described the reports of the renewed poison gas attacks as implausible and provoked the insurgents. After the US showed itself to be convinced of Assad's guilt, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on August 26 of a military intervention by the US or its allies, which would only lead to more problems in the region and more bloodshed. In addition, such a procedure without a UN mandate is contrary to international law. On August 31, the Russian President described a possible retaliatory attack on Syria citing secret information as "below any criticism". He called on the US to submit the evidence they cited to the UN.
  • Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia Saudi Arabia - Foreign Minister Saud ibn Faisal issued a generalized statement calling on the international community to stop Assad's violence in Syria. A member of the foreign affairs committee said that the expected US retaliatory strikes against Syria should aim to end Assad's rule.
  • SyriaSyria Syria - The Syrian ambassador in New York has sent a letter to the UN Secretary General , Ban Ki-moon called for protection against a possible military strike. The Secretary General was responsible for ensuring that Syria was not attacked.
  • TurkeyTurkey Turkey - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey was ready to take part in international action or to join a coalition against the Assad government.
  • United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom - The British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on 23 August 2013 that the likelihood of a conspiracy being involved was negligible. On August 26, he said that military intervention against Assad's government was possible without a UN mandate. He did not rule out the possibility of an attack that same week. British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had “little doubt” that the use of poison gas was initiated by the Syrian government. Hague also expressed doubts about the success of the investigations by the UN inspectors: "Much of the evidence could now have been destroyed by artillery fire". On August 29, 2013, the House of Commons rejected a military operation with a narrow majority (285: 272 votes). Although the vote is not binding, Prime Minister Cameron announced that he would accept the decision and refrain from using the armed forces. Surveys had shown that more than half of the British refuse to participate in the military.
Statement by US President Barack Obama on the chemical weapons attacks on August 31st
  • United StatesUnited States United States - The US government was initially reluctant and stated that it has not yet been able to finally confirm the reports. Republican Senator John McCain called on Obama to act so as not to lose his credibility. He also proposed the destruction of the Syrian Air Force in order to set up a no-fly zone. On August 25, 2013, the government said: “At this point there is little doubt that the Syrian regime used a chemical weapon against civilians in this incident.” However, it left open the way in which they would react to the “arbitrary use of chemical weapons” want. Meanwhile, polls showed that only 9% of Americans would be in favor of military action; should the allegations against the Assad government prove to be true, it would be 25%. President Obama said on August 29th that his behavior had not yet been decided: one should wait for the UN commission to return home and for its report. On August 30, Secretary of State John Kerry presented a map and an intelligence report holding the Syrian government responsible. On August 31, Barack Obama announced a military strike. However, he then decided to submit the approval to the attack to the US Congress for decision.
  • Vatican cityVatican Vatican City - Pope Francis called for an end to violence in Syria and condemned the use of chemical weapons. The use of force never leads to peace, war produces war, violence produces violence, said the Pope. In a letter to Russian President Putin , the Pope calls on the G-20 countries not to remain “inactive” in the search for a peace solution in order to “ prevent a massacre ”.

Position of the UN

  • United NationsU.N. UN - In response to rumors of a planned military attack, General Secretary Ban Ki-moon warned against the US or another state going it alone. If the allegations are confirmed, it is up to the UN to find a solution.

Web links

Commons : Ghouta chemical attack  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

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