Talk:Alleged Chemical Attack, April 11, 2014

Video

 * Brown Moses playlist 8 videos so far. Actually seems to cover a second attack of the same siort here, on the 18th! WTF? --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:22, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Alleged Chemical Attack in Kafr Zita, Hama, April 11th 2014 - 16 videos so far. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:25, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Collection of recent videos allegedly showing scenes of chlorine poisoning (not necessarily on the 11th), some more obviously fake than others, by @Syricide. Here for example are two hilarious "doctors" with sunglasses. --CE (talk) 11:26, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Haaaaam Kffersita | moment of revelation and an explosion in the barrel of the town and the escalation of toxic gases I see an explosion, big, at sunset (or maybe sunrise), And I hear Allahu Akbar before, during and after it. I'm not hearing a helicopter.


 * Important Media Hama Kffersita moment the fall of explosive barrels bearing toxic materials from helicopters on This seems to be the same blast, preceded by an object, falling from a helicopter. It's really quiet, way the hell up there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:37, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

VDC
The Syrian Center for documentation of violations (CDV) issued a report:
 * أنباء عن استخدام غازات محرمة دوليا في مدينة كفرزيتا - محافظة حماه ( Reports of the use of internationally prohibited gases in the city Kffersita - Hama Province ) April 14

Google translated from Arabic, this report calls for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "to send a specialist team to the sites which were exposed to these gases and open an immediate investigation," a referral to the ICC, and for the UN security council to force the Syrian government to both allow UN inspectors into the cirty, and to halt all military activity against rebels in "the city," to preserve the evidence of course.

This report draws on activists, field clinic doctors, a "defected colonel" (who explained Assad's motive), and more, to make these claims: - 3 barrels of explosive at around six in the evening of Friday, 11.04.2014, and two others were about eleven o'clock at night. - One medical source said "the smell of the gas used was very clear as chlorine gas which is similar to a preparation ( Clorox ) which is used in homes, the temperature was relatively warm with winds of medium Alsrahmma led to the erosion of the smell of gas surroundings 500 meters from the (impact site." - Rebel medics collected blood and urine samples from the five most effected. Those seem to be 5% of a total of about "the estimated 100 cases." "Following treatment provided improved state of 95% of the patients except for five cases of severely infected , where was converted to 3 hospitals in northern Syria." - The death toll is unclear but low. All they specify is an unidentified child actually killed by a head injury (caused by the barrel bomb but complicated by the gas), and a 70-year-old man from Morek named Mustafa Ahmed al-Mohammad, also killed by head trauma. Actual gas fatalities, unclear, possibly zero. Most victims were "displaced" people (often meaning hostages) from Morek. "It is worth mentioning that most of the injured were displaced from the neighboring city of Mork." Yes it is.

A second gassing the following day is mentioned:
 * Also been used explosive barrels loaded and toxic chemical gas for a second time the next day 12.04.2014 where they were shelling of the city by four explosive barrels each bearing gases and toxic chemical led to get the same symptoms when dozens of residents of the city have been bombing in the warm eastern part of the city, according to witnesses eye . The activists filmed two barrels after their fall , one of them did not explode ; They said it contains gases that led to the injuries . They have images of this. See the device, below. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:17, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

SOHR Facebook

 * April 11 final toll: No mention. 4 soldiers, two civilians, one rebel killed.
 * April 12 final toll: No mention either. 5 soldiers, one civilian, one JaN fighter "killed by barrels bombardment on Hama countryside. ."
 * April 13 final toll: Still nothing. 3 soldiers, 3 civilians, 1 JaN.
 * April 14: Same. 2 civilians, 1 rebel, 4 soldiers.
 * April 15: "Hama province: The airforce renewed bombardment on the Kafrzeita town amid regime bombardment on parts of the Mourk town with no reports of injuries. 1 woman suffocated to death after aerial bombardment on the Kafrzeita town and its surrounding areas."

Apparently, then the people who knew about this attack at the time are not members of SOHR's extensive activist network. People outside that include the Syrian government, the various Islamist and especially al-Qaeda groups ... also, it suggests that this helicopter dropping this regime-improvised device was not terribly visible to the wider populace, which will include SOHR types, normally. Maybe it was a low-flying chopper, killing people in a basement somewhere? --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:14, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


 * SOHR side-notes: ... - 4-19 "clashes continue between regime forces backed by NDF, against Islamic battalions and Jabhat Al-Nusra around Morek town in the northern countryside} -  4-20 Islamists shell Alawites on Easter - same - 4/21 continued fighting, bombing around Morek

Incident Delineation
Since we've lost track of new CW allegations until this story hit, it might be useful here to catalog and sort out what we've missed. It seems April has been a busy month for toxic molecules in Syria.

Kafr Zita location: 25 km northeast of Hama city (on Wikimapia)

Kafr Zita Area

 * April 11, main subject: around 100 effected, 5 seriously, none fatally. Two others died from head injuries. (see )
 * April 12:
 * April 18:
 * April 21: Reuters, 4/22:
 * ''On Monday, opposition groups reported a further attack, this time 20 miles northeast of Kfar Zeita in the town of Telminnes. Video footage was posted on YouTube by several opposition groups of men, women and children being treated in a field hospital. Many appeared to have trouble breathing and medics held them down. One boy who looked less than 10 years old shook as a medic poured a liquid on his eyes and in his mouth.

A Reuters photograph of another young boy who had been transferred to a hospital closer to the Turkish border showed him lying dead on a stretcher with blood around his mouth. Medics said he had been exposed to chlorine gas at Telminnes. Videos from the site of Monday's bombing showed the same yellow canisters, this time twisted from an explosion.'' 

Elsewhere
Reuters, April 21, reports on at least four allegations just in in April, the last being "last week" in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, posting "footage of four men being treated by medics.''

The Device
April 12 Barrels: The remains of the alleged chlorine barrels used in a follow-up attack of the 12th, allegedly, can be seen in photos provided by the CDV in their April 14 report. barrel 1 - barrel 2. Both show close-ups on just heavy iron plating, fairly rusted, with no kind of mechanisms or anything shown. Each one shows different parts of this central stamp in what seems English:
 * CL2 (read chlorine)
 * (a V logo and circled B)
 * NORINCO CAF

The second one has stamped to the left side:
 * NO
 * TP 45 bar
 * WP 30 bar
 * w __ kg

And to the right, a V, maybe S right beneath, then the picture and it seems the fragment cut off. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:29, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Despite the name's sound, NORINCO is a Chinese company, their biggest arms producer, according to Reuters, April 22: China North Industries Group Corporation "Norinco" didn't answer calls "repeated calls."

Timing

 * Most of chemical weapons removed from Syria: UN spokesman (Xinhua, April 22)

Chlorine is not among the listed chemicals to be destroyed. It has plenty of legitimate uses and so was neither listed nor asked after along with weapons-only chemicals. Following the new allegations, Reuters reported on the 22nd, "it should have been declared if the government has it, an OPCW spokesman said.