Alleged Chemical Attack, April 7, 2018/Witnesses

Nasser Amer Hanen

 * "We couldn't breathe": Inside Douma, Syria, the site of apparent chemical attack - CBS News, April 16, 2018
 * (Copy of video: Syria war: Inside Douma, Eastern Ghouta, bombed city of the 'chemical attack' - BBC, April 17, 2018)
 * ''Nasr Hanan's brother Hamzeh is seen in that activist video lifeless and foaming at the mouth. In the kitchen, he told us how his brother had tried to wash-off the chemicals.
 * ''We asked him to take us to where the missile allegedly hit, and he showed us where a missile was neatly resting.
 * Note: In the video report, correspondent Seth Doan mentions inspectors will find "a scene that could have been tampered with" and "eyewitness accounts that can be confusing and contradictory"
 * TV4Nyheterna på plats i huset där 40 dog efter kemgasattacken i Douma - Swedish TV4, April 17, 2018
 * 0:22 - ''We were sitting in the cellar when it happened.
 * 0:25 - ''Seven in the evening the house was hit.
 * 0:31 - ''We ran out while women and children ran inside the house.
 * 0:39 - ''They did not know that the house was hit from above and was filled with gas.
 * 0:44 - ''Those that ran inside died immediately. I ran out quite...
 * 1:00 - ''Q: What happened to the rest of your family?
 * 1:01 - ''They all died.
 * 1:06 - ''My wife, my brothers, my mother. They all died.
 * 2:23 - ''Women and children were sitting in there, and boys and men here.
 * 2:31 - ''Suddenly there was a sound like a valve on a gas pipe was opened.
 * 2:41 - ''It is difficult to explain.
 * 2:44 - ''I cannot explain.
 * 2:52 - ''I do not know what to say.
 * 2:56 - ''The situation makes me cry.
 * 3:01 - ''Children and toddlers, around 25 children.

"My wife, my brothers, my mother. They all died." VDC martyrs database lists the one named brother - Hamzeh Hanan and no others (at least one brother missing). By normal patterns if they were Muslim, his wife and mother should both have different family names ("maiden"or father's name), so they may appear (only one "wife of entry" is attached to another man) So we have no explanation for the other three entries with this family name, a woman and two girls Taqa Hanan Adult - Female, Asia Hanan Child - Female, Jana Hanan Child - Female.

Neighbor who smells chlorine

 * "We couldn't breathe": Inside Douma, Syria, the site of apparent chemical attack - Seth Doane (reporter), CBS News, April 16, 2018
 * ''"All of a sudden some gas spread around us," one neighbor recounted. "We couldn't breathe, it smelled like chlorine."

Khaled Abu Jaafar
Government forces accused of dropping poisonous chemicals on last rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta. Al-Jazeera 8 Apr 2018:
 * Syria chemical attack: Scores killed in Douma, rescuers say

Khaled Abu Jaafar, a "radio station worker" ... "said that as panicked residents started running around after the attack, he rushed to one of these hideouts to check on his friends and help get people out."

"While people were in the shelters, some on the roof managed to see the gas bombs as they dropped from the planes," Abu Jaafar said, describing what he said was green gas emanating from the canisters falling from the sky." This sounds like he didn't see that himself, just had it described. "Those who saw them rushed to tell everyone in the basement to evacuate," and he too learned somehow, and ran to help from street level.
 * "I went up and down the stairs about three times to help evacuate children from the building." ... By his third frantic dash down the stairs, with a wet piece of cloth over his mouth and a little girl in each arm, everything went dark ... "I lost consciousness. I couldn't breathe any more; it was like my lungs were shutting down..."

He presumably dropped the two girls in the stairwell then, and they probably died there while he was rescued and lived. Two girls are seen dead in the stairwell of the 35-bodies house in videos filmed that night. (best seen at about 1:45 in this video. One girl has dirty or smoke-stained hands, black and white striped pajamas, is bleeding or laid atop a patch of blood on the stairs, and who later has white foam visible in her mouth that wasn't before. The other girl is a toddler with dirty or smoke-stained and purple hands and grubby red clothes with apparent bleach spots, face covered, laying on the level landing. She's later seen bleeding from the mouth, and display cyanosis later (see this tweet). From these clues, it seems likely the girls were re-arranged, with the blood being from the girl in red, originally laying there face-down and head-down on the stairs.

Just below the girls on the stairs is some black cloth, perhaps a sort of bag, partly covering something like a pyrotechnic fumigator with a little pipe apparently emitting light smoke. (same video 0:03, and see this tweet and following discussion). At least one more piece of stray black cloth lays a few steps below that (same video, first frames, and 1:56), just above a larger woman with apparent bleach spots on her clothes, as another view shows, the same set on very gray hands, and possible blood from the nose at least).

Khaled Nuseir and Friends

 * First the chlorine, then chaos and death in Syria attack - Sarah el Deeb, Associated Press, April 18, 2018

Khaled Nuseir, 25, vegetable vendor, spoke to AP reporters in Douma. He says he saw the leaking gas cylinder and "said it didn't appear that it was dropped from the air because it still looked intact. "There was no sound of explosion," he said... "If we are standing here and something falls from an aircraft, doesn't it explode? The cylinder was intact when we found it and it was leaking."

"He and two other residents accused the rebel Army of Islam, which controlled Douma until the militants surrendered it, of carrying out the attack. As they spoke, government troops were nearby, but out of earshot."

But otherwise, his account displays a Familiar and dubious pattern: He asserts gas was released after a canister was deployed as a weapon, he escaped and passed out at a clinic but survived, while his wife and children died in the shelter, developing "white foam." He says this shelter held 51 people, and Only 5 of those survived, including him and, by usual patterns, we might guess four other fighting age men, for 46 dead there. Which site is not clear (two distinct sites are claimed in this report, one site visually holds about 35 bodies and is reported to have held exactly 35, but this one has 46... suggested possible toll between the sites is 81). His named wife and infant daughters appear in the VDC's list, among the 36 so far identified, but all three are listed as adult women. His wife, Fatmeh Qarout (9 months pregnant) - Fatmeh Qarouq http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/199988 Qamar 18 months - Qamar Nsair, adult female http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/199994 Nour 2.5 years - Nour Nsair, adult female www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/199995

Mr. Nuseir also says the bodies from that shelter, apparently including his wife and girls, were collected the next day and buried in a mass grave near the zoo.

Nusair and two other unnamed "residents" are cited, and an attached photo shows three men, presumably the same. Mr. Nuseir is most likely the one talking.

Other appearances: https://twitter.com/FriedemannWo/status/987053678954729477 April 17 appearance: the man in the middle of the photo, says he smelled something, but it soon faded, he drank water and felt better. If any family members died, he doesn't mention it here. A crowd disagrees with him - they all didn't see or smell or feel anything suggesting toxic chemicals were released. Then an older man with a gray beard is presented to confirm what the other guy said - he too definitely smelled chlorine. But he adds that it's not clear who might have deployed it, blaming neither side explicitly. https://www.n-tv.de/mediathek/videos/politik/Was-sagen-Bewohner-zum-moeglichen-Einsatz-von-Giftgas-article20388782.html


 * Doubts: see Talk page.

Hospital scene

 * Russian MoD Briefing: Syrian Eyewitnesses Reveal How Douma Provocation Was Made - Sputnik, April 13, 2018 (video)

Masa

 * Syria 'chemical attack': Family seen in hospital video speak - BBC, April 15, 2018
 * ''I am Masa. We were in Douma basement under shelling. Suddenly they dropped a barrel. It did not explode but it made a "feeshhhh" sound.

Hassan Diab

 * Участвовавший в съемке "химатаки" в Думе мальчик рассказал ее подробности ("a boy who participated in filming of 'chemical attack' in Douma described the details")- RIA, April 18, 2018 and Evgenii Poddubnyi
 * It is said that he participated in filming in exchange for food, and that an attack was staged, no chemical weapons involved.
 * Report on what really transpired in Douma - a cynical provocation - via Russia in RSA, April 19, 2018
 * ''Evgeny Poddubny's report on the false flag chemical "weapons attack" staged by the White Helmets and the so-called rebels. With English subtitles.
 * RT visits hospital seen in Douma ‘chemical attack’ video, talks to boy from footage (VIDEO) - RT, April 20, 2018

Reports

 * OAN Investigation Finds No Evidence Of Chemical Weapon Attack In Syria - One America News, April 16, 2018
 * ''One America’s Pearson Sharp visited the war-torn town of Douma outside the capital of Damascus, looking for evidence of a chemical attack. However, residents there deny the claims of an attack, and say it was staged to help the rebels escape.
 * The search for truth in the rubble of Douma – and one doctor’s doubts over the chemical attack - Robert Fisk, The Independent, April 17, 2018