Talk:Alleged Chemical Attack, August 21, 2013/Activist reports

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Timeline

Felim McMahon has published a timeline of the activist reports and videos published on August 21.

The story is accompanied by a map on Google Maps which tries to map the locations of the videos.

VDC Reports

The Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria produced one detailed report (Arabic and English) on August 22

And a follow-up for their weekly report

From the Aug. 22 report: According to eyewitnesses, in Zamalka, the areas that were targeted by the regime's toxic-loaded rockets are:

  1. - Harata House
  2. - Next to "Om Mazen Boys' School
  3. - Tawfeek Mosque
  4. - The Farm of "Mustafa Khateeb
  5. - Old cemetery

In the second report, VDC spoke to activist Murad Abu Bilal, Information Officer of Zamalka's Coordination Committee, and "one of the few survivors of the media team during the massacre." Indicating a semi- destroyed building, he told them

here was the medical point of Zamalka. on Wednesday 08.21.2013, at quarter to two in the morning (1:45 AM), we were helping people here; about 600 people had been moved to this medical point during the first half hour after the bombing (starting 1:15?), then another missile fell on the same building where the " medical point" was, which led to the death of many patients and the whole medical staff. The place here is called Zamalka Al Balad - Al Mazra'a (the farms? east end of Zamalka?). There were hundreds of victims; from this exact building we took out 400 martyrs, while the injured were about 12000, that is the whole population of the city. Among the martyrs, there had been 750 (75?) unidentified one.
Murad Abu Bilal adds: the top of the: "medical point " building was bombed heavily with chemical weapons, and it is this building that we were assisting the infected people to climb to the top of to inhale some fresh air, however, the second rocket that fell on the mentioned building claimed dozens of lives as well. There were more than 60 people on the top of that building, in addition to dozens of people who were standing on the stairs, and others were waiting in front of the medical point downstairs. At this medical point only, the number of martyrs who were taken out was 400. As for the area near Al Tawfeeq Mosque, we could not help people there because we were not able to reach them.
Another member of the medical staffs, who was at Zamalka during the strike, and who preferred to stay anonymous, says:

There had been four active medical points in Zamalka, however, due to the chemical shelling, three of them were shut except for the point at the front. Currently, most of the medical staffs are recovering, others had been martyred and only a few remained .

To watch the interview, please visit the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSBtk1j9hfw&nofeather=True

It also names 3 medical staff out the however many that allegedly died in all this; two named Naseef (a team of medic brothers?), and a Saed Dandash who managed to die with his wife (not specified why or if she was out working with him). The rest may follow similar pattern. Or this may have been the whole medical staff, a small family-oriented affair. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:20, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

The VDC's own database currently says - with 1.5 years to fill it in - 16 people from Damascus suburbs died in shellingwarplane shelling/un-allowed to seek medical help that day. None of them is from Zamalka, mostly on the further fringes of east and west Ghouta. So any 60 patients blown up and/or gassed again in the repeated attacks on the medical point must have been mixed in to the general toxic gasses tally. May add zero, I haven't ever heard this strange story before. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:20, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Facebook

Chemical Massacre in Syria - Massacre Chimique en Syrie – August 21, 2013, 9.40 pm A #massacre in Eastern AL#Ghouta's towns due to #chemical weaponry - Wednesday, 21/8/2013.

A report from activists on location:

At around 3:00 a.m. in the morning, regime's forces fired rockets with chemical heads on Zamallaka and on Al Zainia area in Ein Turma. Jobar district was slightly affected by as the gases were driven to it by the wind. A big number of civilians were consequently subjected to the gases, leading to the martyrdom of tens of them. Up until now, primary reports from makeshift hospital of Arbeen (where victims were taken) report 41 martyrs fell (22 children, 11 women, 8 men), 5 other martyrs were taken to Douma, 40 martyrs documented by videos in Saqba, and at least 20 martyrs inside Ein Turma itself. Most activists report that death toll amounts to more than a 100 up until now. Many of the martyrs are children, seen in videos below suffocating to death.

Do note that the death toll is very hard to report right now as there are up to 80 civilians in critical conditions in a medical point in Arbeen solely, not mentioning all the other areas to which the patients subjected to the chemical weapons were taken to. [Note: patients were taken to several areas for treatment including Arbeen, Saqba, and Douma].

Symptoms of the patients include nausea, hallucinations, suffocation, hard coughing, high blood pressure, seizures, during affection and post-death gargle, etc. Still, no clue of the chemical weapon/toxic gas that was used by the regime's forces to target the innocent civilians.

Families are fleeing the targeted areas to Saqba and several other nearby areas as reported by activists there as they are utterly horrified. Activists also report the lack of Atropine that is usually used to treat civilians during chemical attacks by the regime; oxygen tanks are not available too. Medics are only using vinegar to the mouth and nose and are washing the bodies of the victims by water.

--Doctor speaking from a medical point in Eastern Al Ghouta, also receiving victims of chemical weaponry:

--Photos/videos of martyrs taken from Arbeen:

(21 martyred children and 8 martyred men in video solely)

(father carrying martyred daughter)

(one of the martyred children)

(one of the martyred children)

(2 martyred children)

(martyred man)

(one martyred child)

--Victims of chemical weaponry:

VIDEOS

--Photos/videos taken from Hamoureyyeh:

--Photos/videos from Saqba:

(3 videos documenting martyrdom of 40 civilians in one medical point)

#CWMassacre

Photo by: Bassam Al Hakeem

Jisreen

تنسيقية جسرين-الثورة السورية في ريف دمشق – August 21 at 7:37am

East Gouta 21/08/2013 #Urgent Haaaam

The largest humanitarian massacre in the history of the revolution against the civilians of East Gouta chemical weapons . Hundreds of martyrs and thousands of injuries .

East Gouta | | Ain Tarma - Zamalka - حزة - Jobar :

  • been limited so far and at least 280 martyrs in 5 points medical only so far in the East Gouta 51 martyr at least one of the points Medical At another point 61 dead and a third 67 martyrs and point fourth over fifty and more than fifty martyr point fifth , and there are points Medical many did not received إحصائياتها after ...
  • 23 children 17 women 11 men at one point and playful numbers increase.
  • Most of the cases of women and children as they slept and all of the civilian casualties , and there are a lot of civilians who remained in their homes affected areas with chemotherapy has not been evacuated and maybe they died .
  • The odors spread in some neighborhoods of Damascus and nearby towns in East Gouta .
  • doctors talk about that user is gas sarin.
  • Ambulances hardly calm patrolling the streets Gota and transported the injured and medical points teeming with injuries .
  • details of what happened :
    Bombarded with missiles to hear her voice for the first time / / 29 / / rocket loaded with chemicals on East Gouta between Ain Tarma and Zamalka , shelling started at / 2:45 / am five missiles people are sleeping , and the rest of the rockets fell , respectively.
  • We demand the international investigation committee using chemotherapy located in Damascus to go directly to the cities of Ain ​​Tarma and Zamalka .. the And to the neighborhood of Jobar Also, it is possible to directly check that and get conclusive evidence of the land of the event ...
  • These strikes come and chemical weapons monitoring committee of the United Nations in the center of Damascus ..

Secondary sources

Talk Radio News Service

“People were screaming and asking for help. They had difficulty in breathing and seeing. There were many dead bodies on the ground. Some families were sleeping when the attack took place and all the family members died,” Al Aan TV reporter Mohammad Salah El Din told TRNS in an exclusive interview via Skype after visiting area hospitals. “I was shocked.”
Many of the victims were brought to area hospitals unconscious or dead, said Dr. Abo Akram, a director of medical field hospital in Erbeen, a Damascus suburb. Others gained consciousness after recovering from a “state of poisoning.”
“This is going to be Syria’s Srebrenica,” said Dan Layman of the Syrian Support Group (SSG) in Washington, referring to the July 1995 massacre in modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina that claimed at least 7,000 lives.
The SSG has lobbied aggressively for providing direct military assistance to the rebel Free Syrian Army.
According to a SSG report on this morning’s attacks, four military-grade rockets were fired from two government-controlled locations at about 2:20 a.m. local time – one along the Damascus-Homs Highway at a location known as the Baghdad Bridge, and another from the neighborhood of Qabun. The rockets landed in four rebel-controlled residential neighborhoods in Ghota.
The targeted areas — Ein Tarma, Jobar, Arbeen, and Zamalka — are recent additions to a slew of rebel-controlled territories near the Syrian leader’s stronghold in Damascus.

Syrian Support Group

Initial injuries were around ten FSA fighters, in adition to about ten civilians first found outside. Immediately hundreds of citizens, struck while asleep in their homes, began arriving at hospitals.

Human Rights Watch

New York Times

It began just after 2 a.m.
Those who heard the explosions and lived to tell about them were surprised at the sound, saying it was “like a water tank bursting” or “like opening a Pepsi bottle.”
Then came the smell, which burned eyes and throats, like onions or chlorine.
At the time of the strikes, a few hours before morning prayers, most people were still asleep in their homes. The substance released by the barrage of rockets, which crashed into suburbs on two sides of Damascus, killed many people before they were even able to get out of their beds.
Shortly after Wednesday’s rocket barrage began, rebel fighters spread the news of the assault by shouting, “Chemical attack!” into their walkie-talkies while loudspeakers affixed to minarets on the top of mosques blared warnings to residents to flee or to seek fresh air on their rooftops.
As in many rebel areas, residents had grown used to dealing with government attacks, instincts that this time only increased the death toll.
According to local doctors, some people took cover in basements, where the gas settled and suffocated them. Medics and photographers who had become accustomed to rushing to the site of attacks arrived too quickly, succumbing to the gases themselves.
Firas, the activist, said he was driving home with some friends when he heard about the attack over his walkie-talkie. He said he was terrified, since no one knew where the attacks had occurred and how far the suspected gas had spread. They used wet pieces of cloth to cover their noses and mouths and sped out of town to a field hospital farther east.
By the end of that day, Dr. Sakhr of Kafr Batna said, 16 of the 160 bodies collected at his clinic had not been claimed. Volunteers took the bodies to a nearby graveyard, photographed their faces one by one, and buried them in a mass grave.

Doctors Without Borders

The Guardian

Liwa al-Islam

Liwa al-Islam, August 21, 2013

لواء الإسلام - القيادة العامة

المكتب السياسي

بيان رقم 74\34-12

مجزرة هي الأبشع والأقذر يرتكبها النظام الأسدي المجرم مستهدفا المدنيين في بلدات الغوطة الشرقية في تصعيد لافت يدل على مدى إفلاس هذا النظام وتراجعه عسكريا على أغلب الجبهات ونحن في لواء الإسلام نأكد في هذه المناسبة على استمرار رفضنا للحل السياسي مع هذا العدو الغادر الذي لا يفهم إلا لغة العنف والقوة وندعو الأطراف التي تروج للحل السياسي إلى إعادة النظر في مواقفها والوقوف في خندق المواجهة الحقيقي مع المجاهدين ونتوعد النظام الأسدي برد مؤلم ومركز وحاسم ولن نقبل إلّا باستئصال هذا النظام المجرم من جذوره ورفع راية التوحيد في عاصمة الأمويين ولله الأمر من قبل ومن بعد .

Translation
The banner of Islam - General Command
Politburo
Statement No. 74 / 34-12
Massacre is الأبشع and Aloqdhir committed by the criminal Assad regime targeting civilians in the towns of East Gouta to escalate impressively shows how bankrupt this regime and the decline militarily on most fronts and we are in the banner of Islam نأكد On this occasion, the continued rejection of a political solution with this enemy treacherous who does not understand the language violence and force and call on the parties that promote a political solution to reconsider their positions and stand in the same trench confrontation with real fighters and Ntoad Assad regime cold and painful Center and decisive and will not accept, but to eradicate this criminal regime from its roots and raise the banner of monotheism in the capital of the Umayyad and Allah is the before and after.
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