File talk:Al-Sukari chlorine barrel bomb.jpg

Image Assessment
I'm still not the best at this, but this all looks strange. Was all this collected from the crime scene and then brought to this one spot? This of course wrecks investigations off the bat - it's harder to determine what angle (should be 90) the bomb or projectile came in at, for example. I could see this being hurled by a locally-made catapult, for example.

That's a smashed windshield from perhaps a truck laid out behind. Implied: the bomb or part of it smashed into a truck's windshield.

The casing ("barrel") split so nicely I suspect that's what it was meant to do. It was probably heavy, either from falling from really high up, or being really loaded, or both. Weights: those discs on the left seem pointless otherwise - maybe pipes, filled with some clay-concrete material, then cut in slices? That would add some heft, could mimic lots of gravity.

Any sign of blast damage on this metal? Any sign of chlorine exposure? (what would that be? with water involved, should corrode the metal). Most of it looks pristine. New material, reflective in spots.

The chlorine: was apparently in these (20 liter?) gas cylinders. The color of the residue around the hole on the left one is very similar to chlorine, maybe just right. Does it leave deposits like that? If so, I suppose this is a good way to show chlorine was released in the area.

Did the others release any? --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:01, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Barrel does not look like blasted (FWIW). (If anything, it looks as if they just brought that thing there, FWIW; or whatever the story might be). Possibly detonating cord around cylinders, but hard to be certain exactly what that is; some cord, let's say. --Resup (talk) 07:51, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Hey, not even that, I think. "Cord" looks stiff - I think it's a rough metal handle, soldered on weakly just below the tank seam. The one behind has the same. The one on the left has no handle, but four anchor spots of solder there. I'd say the deformity means it traveled - dropped or a tall roof at least, maybe landed on something a few feet wide in the middle, and didn't explode at all. --Caustic Logic (talk) 08:04, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

There is a crater on the street right next to the pickup truck. This could be the result of the barrel bumping to the ground. There is also some burn or blast damage to the pickup. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 09:30, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
 * At the end of this video is a view showing the crater and somehow the truck's passenger side door is bent out badly at the top, suggesting a blast force from inside the cab (?) --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:35, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Not a chemist but here's 2 pc on color: it may be ferrum chlorides which are greenish to yellowish/brownish as per wiki FeCl3 (actually showing yellow, though main text suggests otherwise), FeCl2. Reaction is iron with HCl, which come about from chloride when mixed with water. (Can be something else too, put anything yellow, make a photo) --Resup (talk) 11:38, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
 * So some clues say these might have had hydrochloric acid, which is part of the OPCW's accepted 2015 method. But the other part doesn't seem to be here, or we'd see that red-purple fluid around. Hm. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:35, 14 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Cylinders don't look like gas cylinders - more like the small hot water cylinders that are used with a solar collector on a roof. I don't think anyone would want to risk filling these with chlorine under high pressure.  Pmr9 (talk) 13:29, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
 * So another pointer that chlroine gas shouldn't be in there, but what else? If chlorine-related, could be part of the system alleged with precursors mixing, but the other part doesn't seem present. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:35, 14 September 2016 (UTC)


 * What do we think about tank damage? The one was jabbed somehow, one is flattened and maybe split. They all have nozzles on the end, that could have emitted whatever. And most of them appear deformed by the impact (soft metal?)--Caustic Logic (talk) 07:35, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
 * The metal sheet and the long cylinder look as if they're made of bronze: typically used for hot water tanks. Short cylinders have what look like water outflow pipes.  All this looks like scrap from a factory or a domestic hot water system.  Pmr9 (talk) 10:30, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Let's make the shininess a clue and say factory, maybe one specializing in hot water systems, material just delivered from the forge, in bulk to create a bunch of devices and look all "regimey." Why think all this up for a one-off? To me the "barrel" seems like it never was made to be one. They have sheet metal of that kind, lots of it, and made some burritos like this, designed to split open on impact. The tanks look almost custom welded (maybe they were a different size, cut in half and shrunk or expanded to fit some specs?) but new and shiny metal as well. And it squishes like butter, seems strange to me. (non-expert thoughts) --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:06, 14 September 2016 (UTC)