What is a chemical attack in Syria. What do we know about the gas attack in Syria. Addendum: What chemistry tells us about the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the attack on the “chemical weapons depot” in Khan Sheikhoun

29.06.2020

In Syria, several dozen people died in Eastern Ghouta as a result of chemical attack , which was allegedly carried out by government forces controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In Moscow and Damascus, the chemical attack was denied. US President Donald Trump blamed Iran, Russia and Vladimir Putin personally for what happened.

Photo: Halil el-Abdullah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Chemical attack in Ghouta

Residents of the Syrian city of Douma, located 10 kilometers from Damascus, were subjected to a chemical attack, several non-governmental organizations reported last Saturday, April 7. The attack took place during the advance of the Syrian government forces on Ghouta, which at that moment was controlled by the Jaish al-Islam group. The head of the White Helmets volunteer organization, Raid al-Saleh, claims that a Syrian Air Force helicopter dropped a bomb with sarin nerve gas on Douma. According to another version, a chlorine bomb was used in Guta.

“As a result of the attack, 70 people were suffocated, and several hundred more are still suffering,” the head of the White Helmets initially said. He later clarified that 150 people were victims of the attack. The opposition Guta media center reported 75 dead and 1,000 injured in the alleged attack. The Damascus hospital confirmed information about 70 dead. Doctors say they are treating people for symptoms that are characteristic of exposure to nerve gas or chlorine gas.

“We are not making assumptions, we have seen the video. Foaming from the mouths of people, the way their eyes looked, indicate that a chemical attack was carried out in Douma, ”an official representative of the Higher Committee for Negotiations, one of the influential organizations of the Syrian opposition, told the Kommersant newspaper.

Syrian reaction

Syrian state media have accused the Jaish al-Islam group of fraud. "Jaish al-Islam terrorists are in a state of collapse and their media has fabricated reports of a chemical attack to disrupt the advance of the Syrian army," government news agency Sana said.

Russia's reaction

After the chemical attack in Syria, the White House decided to discuss the imposition of new sanctions against Russia. The first meetings on this issue will be held in the coming days, the Kommersant newspaper reported on April 9. President Trump's adviser John Bolton will deliver the keynote address.

EU reaction

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also held Moscow and Damascus responsible for the ongoing chemical attacks in Syria. He recalled that in 2013 Russia promised that the Syrian authorities would give up chemical weapons, but "since 2014, the Assad regime has used poisonous substances at least four times."

On April 8, Donald Trump discussed the chemical attack in Syria with French President Emmanuel Macron. “The President of the French Republic strongly condemned the chemical attacks against the population of Duma in Eastern Ghouta,” the Elysée Palace communiqué reads, quoted by Rossiya Segodnya news agency. The two presidents "strongly condemned the horrendous chemical weapons attacks in Syria and agreed that the Assad regime must be held accountable for its continued violation of human rights."

After the chemical attack, nine countries called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the incident in Douma. Russia, in turn, proposed to hold a meeting on April 9 on the topic “Threats to peace and security”, after which to discuss reports of a chemical attack in Syria.

air base attack

In the early hours of Monday, April 9, a missile attack was launched on the Syrian air base Tiyfor (T-4) in the province of Homs, in which, on information monitoring groups, 14 people were killed, including the Iranian military. The Russian state agency Rossiya Segodnya claims that no one was injured or killed during the attack, and the Syrian air defenses repulsed the airstrike. According to Reuters, air defense shot down eight missiles.

Initially, Syrian state media blamed the US for the missile, but the Pentagon denied this information. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the attack from Lebanese territory was carried out by Israel. “On April 9, in the period from 03.25 to 03.53 Moscow time, two F-15 aircraft of the Israeli Air Force, without entering the airspace of Syria, from the territory of Lebanon, attacked the Tifor airfield with eight guided missiles,” the Ministry of Defense says.

Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned chemical attack in Syria and called on the international community to respond

There is strong suspicion that the Syrian regime is behind the attack in Eastern Ghouta, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Turkey strongly condemns the chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma (Eastern Ghouta province), the Turkish Foreign Ministry (MFA) said in a statement.

There is a strong suspicion that the Syrian regime is behind the attack, the history of the use of chemical weapons of which is known to the international community, the department noted.

"We expect the international community to respond to the attack and international organizations, especially the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, will begin investigating this case immediately," the ministry said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry called on parties with influence over the Syrian regime to take the necessary steps to ensure that such attacks cease immediately.

Volunteers and rescuers reported that on April 7, a helicopter dropped a barrel of chemical on the town of Duma in Eastern Ghouta, killing between 70 and 100 people as a result of the attack. The Ghouta Media Center said the helicopter belonged to Syrian forces.

Douma is the last city in Eastern Ghouta held by the rebels. It is under siege by Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

Nine countries convene emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with the report of a chemical attack in Syria

Nine countries called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the alleged chemical attack in Syria. This was announced by the British Permanent Mission.

This initiative was made by three permanent members of the Security Council - Great Britain, France and the United States, as well as Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Kuwait, Peru and Côte d'Ivoire.

Prior to this, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Paris calls for an urgent convening of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Eastern Ghouta.

Russia, in turn, proposed holding a meeting on Monday on the topic "Threats to peace and security." As expected, it will take place at 22:00 Moscow time. After its completion, the Security Council will discuss reports of a chemical attack in Syria.

Chemical attack reports

A number of opposition Internet portals and the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera previously published reports citing militants about the use of chlorine by the Syrian army in the city of Douma, which allegedly killed several dozen civilians.

US President Donald Trump blamed Damascus for what happened and threatened that the organizers of the chemical attack would "pay dearly" for their actions. In turn, White House adviser on security and counterterrorism Thomas Bossert said that Washington is considering the possibility of striking at Syria.

The Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties denied reports of a chlorine bomb allegedly dropped by the Syrian Armed Forces in Duma and called the accusations against Damascus a fake. The center noted that they were ready to send chemical protection specialists to collect data that would confirm the fabricated nature of the statements.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the purpose of the stuffing about the use of poisonous substances by the Syrian troops is to shield the terrorists and justify possible forceful strikes from outside.

On March 13, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov reported that the Russian military had reliable information that militants in Eastern Ghouta were preparing a provocation with a staged use of "chemical weapons." He noted that there is evidence that the United States will then use this provocation as an excuse to strike at government quarters in Damascus.

Everything we know so far about chemical attacks in Syria: analysis from #Bellingcat

Editorial note. Cooperation between Assad and the Kremlin has again acquired a characteristic criminal turn. Children and adults in Khan Sheikhoun are being poisoned with military gases, and Russian officials are mastering new levels of bottom in lies and frills. Bellingcat has compiled everything we know about the recent chemical attack in Syria. And we have translated the main part of the materials for you. Such texts are difficult to read: they are large, stylistically dry and overflowing with details. But this is what real military journalism and real open source intelligence look like.

Original Publications— The Khan Sheikhoun Chemical Attack, The Evidence So Far andWhat does chemistry tell us about the statements of the Russian Defense Ministry about the attack on the “chemical weapons depot” in Khan Sheikhoun?

Bellingcat, Dan Kascheta

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, photos and video from Syrian sources captured what was later assessed as a chemical weapons attack in the city of Khan Sheikhoun, south of Idlib.

Introduction

The first reports of the attack appeared on social networks on the morning of Tuesday, April 4, 2017. It was claimed that the airstrikes in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib, used a chemical agent that many sources described as sarin. The chronology of events presented in these sources looked like this.

Translation - “On April 4, 2017, four missiles were fired at Khan al-Shehun as a result of two airstrikes from the Su-22. The civil defense forces were present at the site of the defeat, their employees were also injured. More than 200 wounded were taken to hospitals. We do not yet know exactly how many victims there were, but according to preliminary estimates - 50 or 60 people. Medical teams stripped the wounded of their clothes, washed their bodies with water and transferred them to first-aid posts. Symptoms - pressing difficulty breathing, yellow foam from the mouth, subsequently - bloody vomiting.

1:18 - “Many cases of suffocation are the result of gas attacks. Among the wounded are children and women. Over 70 victims. What kind of gas was used, we do not know.”

Photos and videos from the hospitals where the victims of the attack were treated were posted online and collected in this playlist along with other related videos. In the video, the victims, including children, have characteristic symptoms - lack of reaction to light, foaming at the mouth and convulsions. This coincides with the symptoms of sarin poisoning, but not only. ( Mlegsenerveepoisonousesubstancesabasicallycausesimilar symptoms - noteaP&M). However, given that attacks using sarin have already occurred in Syria, and their victims had the same symptoms, some observers have concluded that it was he who was used in this case. In the following video (in English), Dr. Shazhul Islam from Binnish Hospital talks about the situation in the institution during the treatment of the victims.

Later, it was also reported that one of the civil defense centers used as a hospital, where victims of the previous attack were rescued at that time, was hit. This air strike on a partly underground hospital was filmed.

Both Syria and Russia denied that chemical munitions were used in the airstrike. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the cause of chemical contamination was the hit of a shell in the rebel ammunition depot ( we have placed a separate bellingcat material with an analysis of this lie at the bottom of the article - P&M note).

Early PostsI

The first message appeared on the morning of April 4th. This video, which, according to its author, recorded an airstrike with a chemical component, was uploaded online at 4:59 UTC (data from YouTube Data Viewer from Amnesty International).

Other photos showing the same place from different angles have been released by news outlets such as Reuters.

Based on these videos and photos, it was possible to geolocate the funnel.

The geolocation of the crater, combined with the video of the alleged chemical weapons attack, shows that the crater is not visible in the video. In the video, it's still not a chemical missile hit (assuming this is the only place where the chemical attack took place).

Another lesion site was shown in YouTube channel of the Syrian Journalism Center.

Translation: 2:20 - “Today, residential areas were attacked. There are no military bases in the air strike zone. The first rocket hit at 6:30, a little farther from here, the second one here.”

Although images of the remnants of the rocket were uploaded to the network, it is not yet possible to determine which ammunition was used.

hospitals

As a result of the attack, the victims were taken to hospitals and clinics, some as far as 50 kilometers from the impact site. AT videos published as a result of the attack, it is possible to identify at least four different locations where patients were admitted and treated. These videos have been collected into separate playlists and tagged as hospital A , hospital B , hospital C and hospital D. The most interesting was Hospital B, located in Khan Sheikun itself, which was hit by an airstrike on the same day as the chemical attack, while treating its victims. This place was used both as a hospital and as a center for local civil defense. The moment of impact was captured on camera by local activists.

“According to the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, on Thursday, between 11:30 and 12:30 local time (from 8:30 to 9:30 UCT), a Syrian aircraft launched an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan- Sheikhun, hitting a large warehouse of ammunition and military equipment of terrorists. Konashenkov said that the militants transported chemical munitions to Iraq through this warehouse. He also added that there were workshops for the production of bombs filled with poisonous substances. He noted that the same ammunition was used by militants in the Syrian Aleppo.

In addition to the purely geographical difficulties of moving chemical weapons across Syria, including territories controlled by ISIS and the Assad government, it is worth noting that the time of the attack here is a period several hours later than the first appearances of the results of the air strike on the network. It is also worth noting that the Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly been caught lying and forging evidence and must be regarded as highly unreliable even when presenting evidence in support of its position.

Addendum: What does chemistry tell us about the statements of the RF Ministry of Defense about the attack on the “chemical weapons depot” in Khan Sheikhoun?

In response to allegations of a chemical attack in the Syrian Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that a warehouse of poisonous substances had been destroyed in that city.

According to Russian means of objective airspace control, on April 4, from 11:30 to 12:30 local time, Syrian aircraft attacked a large terrorist ammunition depot and a cluster of military equipment in the area of the eastern outskirts of the Khan Sheikhun settlement.

On the territory of this warehouse there were workshops for the production of land mines filled with poisonous substances.

From this largest arsenal, ammunition with chemical weapons was delivered by militants to Iraqi territory. Their use by terrorists has been repeatedly proven by both international organizations and the official authorities of this country.

From a technical standpoint, it seems unlikely that the April 4 chemical exposure was the result of the “destruction of a chemical weapons depot,” as the Russian Defense Ministry claims. So far, binary-type poisonous substances have been used in the Syrian conflict. These agents are so named because they are made by mixing different ingredients a few days before use. For example, sarin is made by mixing isopropyl alcohol with methyldifluorophosphoranil, usually also using additives to neutralize the resulting acid. Another nerve agent, soman, is also produced through a binary process. VX is produced in a similar manner, although the process involved is more complex than simple mixing of materials.

There are several reasons for the Assad regime's use of binary poisons. Binary nerve agents are developed by the US Army to ensure safe storage and handling so that nerve agents do not move through the supply chain in finished form. Some US munitions provide a mixture of such materials in the air after they are launched. For example, these are the M687 155 mm Sarin artillery shell, the XM736 8-inch VX binary shell, and the Bigeye binary bomb. A lot of time has been spent on research and development of these ammunition, and none of them has shown good results in practice (especially the VX). There is no evidence of the development or adoption by the Assad regime of in-flight mixing binary munitions. OPCW inspections and the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention by Syria in 2013 have uncovered various fixed and mobile binary nerve agent blending facilities.

Another reason for the use of binary sarin is that few countries have mastered the technology to produce "unitary" sarin with any long shelf life. The basic chemical reaction to produce Sarin produces one molecule of the strong and dangerous hydrofluoric acid (HF) for every Sarin molecule synthesized. Residues of this acid will corrode virtually any container in which Sarin is stored, and will also quickly reduce the effectiveness of Sarin. The USA and the USSR spent considerable efforts to solve this problem. They found various ways to separate hydrofluoric acid from sarin using expensive heavy chemical engineering techniques, which, for obvious reasons, are best not described here. The Syrian authorities either failed to develop such techniques, or decided that it was much cheaper, safer and easier to store binary components, mixing them as needed. That is why the OPCW found mobile mixing equipment. In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, despite serious problems with the shelf life of sarin, it was also not acid-refined.

Even assuming that a significant amount of the substances used to synthesize Sarin were located in the same part of the same warehouse (which in itself would be rather strange), a large amount of Sarin could not have been synthesized as a result of the airstrike. An air strike on the components of a binary nerve agent cannot serve as a mechanism for its synthesis. It is foolish to say so, to say the least. One of these substances is isopropyl alcohol. As a result of an air strike, it would immediately burn out, forming a huge fireball, which was not observed at all.

In addition, even if the Syrian military knew that a chemical weapon was stored in a warehouse, an air strike on such a warehouse would be an indirect use of such weapons.

Finally, let's return to the issue of industrial capacity. The production of Sarin requires at least 9 kilograms of substances, which are quite difficult to obtain. Approximately the same amount is required for the production of other nerve agents. Obtaining any significant amount of nerve agents requires a complex supply chain for rare raw materials and an industrial base for their production. Are we being asked to believe that the rebel group has spent huge amounts of money on creating production facilities that, for some reason, have not yet been noticed and attacked? This possibility seems unlikely.

Beirut, Lebanon. On April 4th, one of the worst chemical bombings in Syrian history turned the rebel-controlled northern region into a toxic zone, stoking international outrage at the government's increasing impunity in the country's six years of war.

Western leaders, including President Trump, have blamed President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government and called on his backers Russia and Iran to prevent what many have already dubbed a "war crime" from happening again.

According to eyewitnesses, doctors and rescuers, dozens of people, including children, died - in agony, suffocating and foaming at the mouth - as a result of inhaling a poison that may have contained a nerve paralytic or other banned chemicals. The substance is said to have spread early in the morning after several bombs were dropped by military aircraft. Some rescuers felt unwell and fell next to the dead.

Representatives of the opposition-run Ministry of Health in the province of Idlib, where the attack took place, reported 69 dead and released a list of names. Not all have yet been identified, and some humanitarian groups have said at least a hundred people have died.

The Assad government, which about four years ago renounced the use of chemical weapons after a large-scale chemical attack, which, according to the conclusions of the American intelligence services, was behind its own forces, denies the involvement of its army in the incident, as, in fact, every time chemical weapons are used in Syria. ammunition.

The Syrian military, in a statement, blamed the rebels for the incident and said they blame the army for using toxic weapons "every time they fail to achieve the goals of their sponsors."

But only the Syrian military had the ability and motive to carry out an air attack like the one that hit the rebels in the city of Khan Sheikhoun.

Russia put forward another explanation. Defense Ministry spokesman Major Igor Konashenkov said Syrian warplanes hit a rebel storage facility containing toxic substances intended for use in chemical weapons.

According to witnesses of the attack, it all started before 7 am. Numerous photographs and videos posted online by activists and residents show how children and the elderly suffocate and can't breathe or lie motionless in the mud, or as rescuers rip victims off their clothes and spray them with water from hoses. The bodies of at least ten children lay on the ground in a row or under blankets.

A few hours later, according to eyewitnesses, another airstrike hit the hospital with the victims, who had shortly been distributed to small clinics and maternity hospitals, because an air raid two days earlier had caused serious damage to the largest hospital in the area.

The scale and audacity of the attack threatened to further undermine the symbolic and often violated ceasefire that has been in effect in parts of the country since Assad's troops retook the northern city of Aleppo with Russian help in December, stoking the Syrian leader's hopes of winning the war.

The attack was apparently meant to slow down the United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva and Russia and Turkey in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Humanitarian organizations skeptical of the chemical attack have demanded action from the UN Security Council, whose members have been paralyzed by divisions over the perpetrators of the Syrian war almost since the conflict began in 2011.

Context

Syria: new twist after chemical attack?

Le Figaro 05.04.2017

Fictional stories about the war in Syria and Iraq

Publico.es 04/05/2017

Russia ineptly blackmailing America

Al-Arab 03/31/2017
On the night of April 4th, Britain, France and the United States urged the Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the attack and ordering the Syrian government to provide international investigators with the details of all flight logs, flight plans and the names of the commanders of the air operations that took place, including on Tuesday.

The draft resolution, which was negotiated between the diplomats of the three countries on April 4, was later sent to all 15 members of the UN Security Council. It could be put up for a vote as early as Wednesday.

For Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly denounced what he called President Barack Obama's failures in Syria, the chemical weapons attack created a potential political dilemma and exposed a number of glaring contradictions in his own changing stance on Syria.

The White House called the attack a "reprehensible" act against innocent people that the civilized world should not ignore.

At the same time, Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer denounced Obama for failing to deliver on his 2012 promise to establish a "red line" that involved military intervention in Syria if Assad used chemical weapons.

But in August 2013, Trump urged Obama not to intervene after the Damascus chemical weapons incident, which U.S. intelligence attributed to the Syrian military and which, according to the U.S. government, killed more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children. “President Obama, don’t attack Syria,” Trump tweeted at the time. “There is no benefit to this, only a huge disadvantage.”

The Trump administration, which would like to shift the focus in Syria solely towards the fight against the "Islamic state" (banned in the Russian Federation - ed. note), recently called Assad's retention of his post a political reality, which caused strong condemnation from influential Republicans who believe that Assad needs to go.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had said Bashar al-Assad's fate "will be decided by the Syrian people," abruptly changed his tone on April 4, calling on Mr. that such horrific attacks will never happen again.”

Russia has always insisted that it has no military role in this conflict. But a State Department spokesman who spoke at a briefing in Washington said that Russian officials were only trying to evade responsibility because Russia and Iran were guarantors of the Assad government's intention to stick to ceasefire agreements at peace talks organized with the participation of the Kremlin in Astana.

Rescuers from a civil defense organization called the White Helmets say many children were among those killed and wounded. Their own incident reporter, Radi Saad, said that the volunteers who arrived at the scene were unaware of the chemicals, and five of them suffered from exposure to the substance.

Although gas attacks using chlorine have become commonplace in northern Syria, this one was fundamentally different from them, according to medical workers and witnesses of the tragedy. Attacks using chlorine gas usually kill only a few people, mostly in confined spaces, and the gas itself quickly dissipates.

This time it happened in the open air and claimed many more lives. The symptoms were varied, including pupils shrunken to the size of dots, suggesting the presence of nerve agents and other banned poisons. One doctor even posted a video showing how the pupil shrinks in this case. Several people felt unwell just by touching the victims.

Minister of Health in the Syrian interim government, Mohammad Firas al-Jundi, said via video recordings that visited field hospital at 7:30 am, when more than a hundred wounded and sick people were brought in.

“The patients are lying in the corridors and on the floor of the operating rooms, in the intensive care unit and in the wards,” he said. “I saw more than 10 deaths caused by this attack.”

According to him, the symptoms included suffocation; fluid in the lungs, with the release of foam from the mouth; loss of consciousness; convulsions; and paralysis.

“It's just horrific,” he said. “The world knows and understands everything that is happening in Syria, and we are ready to present evidence to the forensic laboratories of the use of these gases.”

Mariam Abu Khalil, a 14-year-old resident of the attacked city, said the attack happened while she was taking a Qur'anic exam scheduled for the early morning due to the low number of bombings expected. On the way, she saw how the plane dropped a bomb on a one-story building just a few tens of meters away from her. In a telephone interview on the evening of April 4, she described the explosion as a yellow mushroom that stung her eyes. “It was like winter fog,” the girl said.

Hiding in her house nearby, she saw several residents arrive to help the wounded. “When they got out of the car, they immediately inhaled gas and died,” she said.

It became the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since August 2013. Under threat of US retaliation, Mr. Assad agreed to a Russian-US agreement to eliminate his country's chemical weapons program, which he had previously denied having, and join the international chemical weapons treaty.

But the operation took longer than expected and raised questions about whether all materials were accounted for. The head of the international monitoring body, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, complained in an internal report about misleading statements by Damascus and expressed concern about the possible presence of undeclared chemical weapons.

The UN-affiliated organization has since found that the Syrian authorities used chlorine gas as a weapon three times in 2014 and 2015, in violation of the treaty. Rebels, doctors and anti-government activists speak of a host of other chlorine attacks, at least two of which took place last week, resulting in the death of a doctor in the line of duty.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has also accused the Islamic State of using banned mustard gas in Iraq and Syria. The area around the city of Khan Sheikhoun is not controlled by the Islamic State, but by other insurgents: al-Qaeda-linked militants and a host of other insurgent groups.

If this chemical weapons attack is the work of a government, then the question of the government's impunity will certainly be raised at a major international meeting in Brussels, where officials will discuss the feasibility of billions of dollars from the EU and others to rebuild Mr. Assad's government-led Syria.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Swedish journalist Patrik Paulov suspects something about the quality of the news agenda of the Syrian war.

Chemical attack in Syria and the failure of journalism

The journalistic accounts of Tuesday's Idlib chemical attack are a fresh example of the collapse of journalism. As soon as it comes to Syria, or more precisely, as soon as it comes to some kind of war in which the Western countries decided to portray one of the parties as a bloodthirsty tyrant who should be removed, then all investigative journalism and all critical thinking goes up in smoke.
There are journalists who never doubt. Just hours after the horrifying photos of children and adults dying in the city of Khan Sheikhoun circulated around the world, Aftonbladet journalist Wolfgang Hansson knew exactly what was going on. "Syrian Dictator Deceived the World," read the headline. In an article, a foreign commentator for one of the largest Swedish newspapers announced that Bashar al-Assad either lied to the world that Syria transferred all chemical weapons after the agreement with the UN in 2013, or produced a new one. What are the reasons why this person in front of everyone decides to choke children with gas? Well, says Wolfgang Hansson, this is all because he is under the protection of Putin, he is not afraid of "some kind of American bombing." And the reason is that with the help of "hunger and chemical bombs" he is trying to destroy the last military strongholds of the opposition among the civilian population.
Unfortunately, Wolfgang Hansson is not alone. In the Aktuellt broadcast on SVT that evening, the culprit was named, although not quite as peremptorily, but the starting point of reasoning and analysis was the same.

There was no analysis of sources or discussion about how difficult it is to figure out what really happened. Nothing was said about the fact that the city was controlled by forces that the UN identified as terrorists. Not the slightest warning was given, which is often the case in war when interested parties try to vilify the enemy in order to gain international support.
Aktuellt journalist Anna Hedenmo instead opted to ask fellow journalist Stefan Åsberg a question: "For what reason is the regime killing its own people?"

The coverage of the chemical attack is reminiscent of the debacle that journalism suffered when eastern Aleppo was liberated late last year. Later it turned out that the warnings of "opposition activists" that Assad was going to destroy tens of thousands of freedom-loving residents of Aleppo were a bluff. Later, UN statistics became known, according to which 75% of the inhabitants of the eastern part of the city preferred to move to areas controlled by the government. The 25% who did not see the government as a liberator turned out to be mostly armed men and their families.

Now that the eyes are on the city of Khan Sheikhoun in the province of Idlib, all the mistakes made, all the misleading materials of the past are again forgotten.
Why don't Aftonbladet, SVT and other official media tell about this chemical attack? Here are some examples.

1. First of all, with regard to the claim that there are only two parties to the conflict in Syria - the Syrian government and the Islamic State (banned in Russia, ed.) - which were accused of using chemical weapons during the conflict. It is not true. There is also a third party that has been accused several times in this connection. These are those who are called opposition or rebels in the West.
The fact is that accusations were also made against the “rebels”, because of which the Syrian government, back in 2013, was forced to apply to the UN to investigate the use of chemical weapons in the war. Not earlier than a few weeks ago, the government submitted to the UN information on the investigation into the fact that the terrorist organization Al-Nusra Front (banned in Russia, ed.) imported and stockpiled chemical weapons in Syria. And it's not just the government that suspects armed groups. As early as 2013, exiled opposition leader Haytham Manna said that al-Qaeda (banned in Russia, ed.) used chemical weapons in Syria. In April 2016, Amnesty published a report on "armed opposition groups" who committed war crimes during attacks on Sheikh Maksoud in northeastern Aleppo. Amnesty stressed that chemical weapons were likely used.

2. The claim that "rebels" or "opposition" control Khan Sheikhoun and the rest of the province of Idlib is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration. Idlib has been a stronghold of al-Qaeda extremists since 2014, no matter what names the groups there occasionally go under or what alliances they form. The fact is that Idlib is controlled by the same groups that used to be in eastern Aleppo and whom Amnesty accused of committing war crimes and also suspected of possessing chemical weapons.

3. Russia says the deadly gas release was caused by the Syrian Air Force bombing a warehouse where "rebels" were holding banned chemical weapons. We can't know, of course, whether this is true or not, but it's a plausible explanation that the gas spread and caused the massacre. SVT news, however, said that information from Russia should be taken with "a fair amount of skepticism, as the country is a close ally of Syria."
When information comes from the other side, there is no such critical approach to the source. Is there no reason to distrust information from people who freely operate in the territory controlled by al-Qaeda and their extremist associates, and who are supported by foreign authorities?
In the SVT report, an insufficiently critical attitude towards sources was evident. Shajul Islam, a UK-trained physician, was interviewed as a witness from Khan Shaykun. Four years ago, he was one of a string of young people in the UK who were suspected of terrorist activities in Syria and convicted of their role in the kidnapping of two Western journalists. Shahul Islam was not convicted, but struck off the register of British doctors. None of this is mentioned during the interview.

4. There is also no critical attitude when it comes to the glorified White Helmets. Does it surprise you that they are constantly in al-Qaeda-controlled areas of Syria? A very likely explanation for this is that there are close ties between the White Helmets and the main extremists. French volunteer Pierre Le Corf undertook a trip to eastern Aleppo earlier this year to raise public awareness. Everything was filmed on video. Pierre Le Corff visited the abandoned headquarters of the White Helmets and found that it was on the same farm as the headquarters of the al-Qaeda branch of al-Nusra Front. The symbols of both adorned the buildings side by side. One organization that has taken a critical look at the activities of the White Helmets is the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights. Using their medical expertise, they researched the White Helmets' own films of their humanitarian work. Among other things, the "Swedish Doctors" found that the so-called life-saving measures in reality, on the contrary, would be life-threatening if they took place in reality. US journalist Stephen Kinzer, a Boston Globe columnist, recently called "White Helmets" by al-Qaeda's PR unit.

5. And finally, every thinking person should ask himself the question of who benefits from which scenario.
Why would the ruling regime in Damascus begin to commit a crime in front of the eyes of the whole world, after which it will certainly be called a cold-blooded murderer of children?
Why thus sabotage our own hard work in trying to convince the Western world that Syria stands for a legitimate and necessary fight against terrorism?
Why would they decide to totally undermine the peace process in Geneva and Astana, which at the moment represents the only hope of finding a negotiated solution and making possible the peaceful reconstruction of the country?
And if the Syrian leadership is ready to act so shamelessly that it does not hesitate to gas its own population, why then does the government, region after region, conclude local peace agreements, offering the belligerents an amnesty or free passage to the province of Idlib if they lay down their arms?

Earlier this year, Irish journalist Patrick Cockburn wrote in the London Review of Books that "in Syria, fabricated news and one-sided reporting have taken over the news agenda in a way we probably haven't seen since the First World War." According to Cockburn, this is due to the fact that "Western news organizations draw their news almost exclusively from the insurgents."

Patrick Cockburn's article is based on the events in Aleppo, but could just as well be about Khan Sheikun.

On the topic of the "Swedish Doctors" statement, you can go here http://chervonec-001.livejournal.com/1821146.html or here http://piseckotenku.livejournal.com/44915.html

PS. The doubts of the Swedes can be understood, since the consequences of such a policy towards Syria have recently literally passed through them. The terrorist who recently crushed people in the center of Stockholm turned out to be a native of Uzbekistan who was associated with the Islamic State

The New York Times, USA. Anne Barnard, Michael Gordon

Beirut, Lebanon. - On April 4, one of the worst chemical bombings in Syrian history turned the rebel-controlled northern region into a toxic zone, stoking international outrage at the government's growing impunity in the country's six years of war.

Western leaders, including President Trump, have blamed President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government and called on his patrons Russia and Iran to prevent what many have already dubbed a "war crime" from happening again.

The Syrian military, in a statement, blamed the rebels for the incident and said they blamed the army for using toxic weapons. every time they fail to reach their sponsors' goals».

But only the Syrian military had the ability and motive to carry out an air attack like the one that hit the rebels in the city of Khan Sheikhoun.

According to witnesses of the attack, it all started before 7 am. Numerous photographs and videos posted online by activists and residents show children and the elderly suffocating and unable to breathe or lying motionless in the mud, as well as rescuers ripping off victims' clothes and pouring water over them from hoses. The bodies of at least ten children lay on the ground in a row or under blankets.

The attack was apparently meant to slow down the United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva and Russia and Turkey in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

On the night of April 4th, Britain, France and the United States urged the Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the attack and ordering the Syrian government to provide international investigators with the details of all flight logs, flight plans and the names of the commanders of the air operations that took place, including on Tuesday.

The White House called the attack a "reprehensible" act against innocent people that the civilized world should not ignore.

President Obama, don't attack Syria,” Trump tweeted at the time. - There is no benefit in this, only a huge minus

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said that the fate of Bashar al-Assad " the Syrian people will decide On April 4, he abruptly changed his tone, calling on Mr. Assad's allies Russia and Iran to "bring their influence over the Syrian regime and provide assurances that such horrific attacks will never happen again."

Mohammad Firas al-Jundi, Minister of Health in the Syrian interim government, said via video that he visited the field hospital at 7:30 am, when more than a hundred wounded and sick people were brought in.

Patients lie in the corridors and on the floor of operating rooms, in the intensive care unit and wards, he said. - I saw more than 10 deaths caused by this attack.