Thread: Syria poison gas attack kills at least 40, activists and medics say

Syria poison gas attack kills at least 40, activists and medics say

By Dom Calicchio
52 mins ago

A poison gas attack late Saturday on a rebel-held town near Syria's capital has killed at least 40 people, activists, rescuers and medics said.

The alleged attack in Douma, about 10 miles east of Damascus, occurred amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce.

In all, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 people were killed in Douma on Saturday, including around 40 who died from suffocation.

In some cases, entire families were found suffocated in their houses and shelters, according to opposition-linked first responders known as the White Helmets.

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said 41 people had been killed, but other reports put the death toll much higher, Reuters reported.

President Trump forges ahead with plans to withdraw troops from Syria; insight and analysis from retired Marine Corps SSGT Joey Jones.

Meanwhile, the Russian-backed Syrian government denied that its forces had launched any chemical attack, Reuters reported. The government said rebels in Douma, in eastern Ghouta, were in a state of collapse and spreading false news, the report said.

None of the reports could be immediately independently confirmed, both the Associated Press and Reuters said.

Activists circulated a video showing presumably dead men, women and children, some with foam at the mouth, the news agency added.

“Douma city, April 7 ... there is a strong smell here,” a voice is heard saying, the report said.

Just days ago, President Donald Trump said he was hoping to bring U.S. troops out of Syria within six months.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/04...edics-say.html

We need to go ahead and pull out very very soon. Don't fall for these phony poison gas attack stories circulated by White Helmets.

No good options for Syria's vanquished rebels in Ghouta

By ZEINA KARAM and BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press
March 28th

BEIRUT – Three years ago, the Army of Islam, one of Syria's most powerful armed opposition groups, held a massive military parade that included thousands of opposition fighters marching in formation and a striking display of tanks and armored vehicles at the doors of the Syrian capital.

The parade, held in the town of Douma in the spring of 2015, demonstrated the Saudi-backed group's growing clout in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, which for years were seen as a potential launch pad for a ground attack on Damascus, seat of President Bashar Assad's power.

The Army of Islam now stands alone in eastern Ghouta, its fighters facing a stark choice: Surrender or die.

Haitham Bakkar, a Douma-based opposition activist, said the situation in Douma is very tense because it is unclear what will happen next. He said it was a question of existence for the Army of Islam fighters, most of whom are from Douma.

"If the Army of Islam goes to northern Syria it will be its end," he said.

Douma, on the northeastern edge of Damascus, is the last rebel holdout in the eastern Ghouta region after thousands of fighters from the Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman groups ceded their towns to government control under a deal brokered by Russia, a key ally of Assad.

For days, their fighters have been exiting from the southernmost pockets of eastern Ghouta, leaving in a fleet of buses, including the lime-green municipal buses that have come to symbolize defeat for the Syrian opposition as the government takes back control of cities around the country.

The Ghouta fighters join tens of thousands of rebels from other areas of Syria, including Aleppo and Homs, who were driven out in the past few years following similar deals with the government that granted them safe passage to the north in return for abandoning the rebellion.

With the help of Russian airstrikes, the army has waged a crushing air and ground offensive to recapture eastern Ghouta, killing more than 1,600 people since Feb. 18, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Five weeks later, the eastern Ghouta region, once a cluster of around 15 rebel-held towns spread east of Damascus, has been overtaken by government forces, except for Douma, where the Army of Islam is headquartered.

Rebels who have left eastern Ghouta so far have all gone to Idlib, an insurgent-held region dominated by al-Qaida-affiliated fighters near the Turkish border, where they either have a presence or good relations with Turkey.

By contrast, the Army of Islam, called Jaysh al-Islam in Arabic, is home-grown and has no other strongholds in the country.

"Jaysh al-Islam is a very local phenomenon, emerging from the specific social fabric and Salafi school of thought of the Damascus countryside," said Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

"More precisely, Jaysh al-Islam is a creature of Douma, and I don't know how it would survive outside it," especially in Idlib, where there is rebel rivalry, he said.

It is a resounding defeat for the powerful group that once briefly overran parts of Damascus and showered the capital with mortar shells. It is also a reflection of the diminished role of Saudi Arabia, once a major supporter of Syrian rebels.

Thousands of Army of Islam fighters — some estimates say around 10,000 — are now encircled in Douma, a densely populated town with a huge number of civilians who are terrified of what they see as a looming army offensive if the rebels don't exit. One resident said there are currently about 150,000 civilians in Douma, many of them internally displaced from other towns in eastern Ghouta, some of them staying out in the open or in destroyed buildings.

This civilian pressure is weighing on the group as it negotiates with the government and its Russian backers. Several opposition activists have said that the Russians have given the Army of Islam 48 hours as of early Tuesday to leave Douma for northern Syria or face an all-out offensive.

But the group's military spokesman, Hamza Bayraqdar, denied the reports and said Army of Islam fighters would never leave, describing the evacuations to the north as forced displacement.

"We are negotiating to stay, not to depart," he told Al-Arabiya TV on Tuesday. "The people who will leave eastern Ghouta will never dream of returning to their homes."

The group has no good choices. Going to Idlib would put its fighters in an area dominated by al-Qaida, against whom it has fought pitched battles in the past. The Britain-based Observatory reported this week that the Russians rejected a request by some Army of Islam members to head to the southern province of Daraa. Such a move would bring the militants close to the Jordanian border, from where they would likely get assistance from Saudi Arabia.

The rebels, meanwhile, are bitterly blaming each other for their defeat in Ghouta.

After Faylaq al-Rahman began withdrawing from eastern Ghouta, Army of Islam members blasted their former allies, accusing them of helping government forces by drying out artificial swamps set up by insurgents to slow down the army's offensive.

"We had defensive plans prepared, but regrettably Faylaq al-Rahman cut the water that was brought from Barada River," Bayraqdar said. "This sped up the regime's advance."

Asked about the charges, Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Olwan said: "I don't want to respond because we are trying to avoid their irresponsible statements."

Olwan told The Associated Press that it is still not clear whether Faylaq al-Rahman's members will end up in Idlib or in areas controlled by Turkish troops. "I still don't know what our role will be," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03...in-ghouta.html

Rebels, it's over. You lost. You started a war without a valid cause, you've caused the deaths of 500,000 Syrians, millions of refugees, billions of dollars, and for what? Nothing. You are not defined by "Islam" in any version, you are Syrian, it's time to live and think like one.

Originally Posted by Judy

Rebels, it's over. You lost. You started a war without a valid cause, you've caused the deaths of 500,000 Syrians, millions of refugees, billions of dollars, and for what? Nothing. You are not defined by "Islam" in any version, you are Syrian, it's time to live and think like one.

Oh, I'd say they've had plenty of reason. President Bashar Assad is a lethal tyrant. His chemical warfare and murder against his own populace is well documented. The man is one bad actor as is Putin!

All leaders of a country fighting a vicious civil war against rebels are "tyrants". It's how you win the damn war and save the country.

Dozens Suffocate in Syria as Government Is Accused of Chemical Attack

By BEN HUBBARDAPRIL 8, 2018



A video image provided by the Syrian Civil Defense, an aid group, of toddlers after a suspected chemical attack in the rebel-held Syrian suburb of Douma on Sunday. Credit Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, via Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus, with aid groups on Sunday blaming President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the assault and Western governments expressing outrage.
Rescue workers in Syria reported finding at least 42 people dead in their homes from apparent suffocation, and antigovernment activists circulated videos of lifeless men, women and children sprawled out on floors and in stairwells, many with white foam coming from their mouths and nostrils.

A stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems were rushed to clinics after the attack at dusk on Saturday, medical and rescue groups said.

The attack appeared to break the will of Douma’s rebels, who agreed on Sunday to a deal with the government to hand the area over and be bused to another area outside government control in the country’s north. Thousands of fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives are expected to leave soon.
The latest atrocity in Syria’s agonizing seven-year civil war drew immediate condemnation from the United States and the European Union, but Mr. Assad’s allies in Moscow and Tehran dismissed allegations of a chemical attack as “bogus.”

The British Foreign Office called for an urgent investigation and said that if the use of chemical weapons proved to be true, “it is further proof of Assad’s brutality.”
The United States government said it was working to verify whether chemical weapons had been used. A new, confirmed chemical attack in Syria would pose a dilemma for President Trump, who ordered military strikes on a Syrian air base after a chemical attack last year to punish Mr. Assad but has more recently said he wanted to get the United States out of Syria.

In posts on Twitter on Sunday, Mr. Trump condemned the attack, blaming Iran and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for supporting the Syrian government and warning of consequences. White House officials did not rule out a military response.
Mr. Trump also took a jab at former President Barack Obama, who declined to respond militarily to evidence that the Syrian government had gassed its own people in 2013.
“If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!” Mr. Trump tweeted.

State news media in Syria denied that government forces had used chemical weapons and accused the Islamist rebel group that controls Douma, the Army of Islam, of fabricating the videos to solicit international support as defeat loomed.
The Russian Foreign and Defense Ministries also denied that chemical weapons had been used.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports because Douma is surrounded by Syrian government forces, which prevent access by journalists, aid workers and investigators.

The attack occurred near the end of a monthslong push by the Syrian government to retake a group of towns east of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta. The towns have been held by rebels seeking to topple Mr. Assad since the early years of the Syrian war, and the rebels have often shelled Damascus, killing civilians.
The Syrian government and its allies — the Russian military and militias backed by Iran — have surrounded and bombarded the area, killing more than 1,600 people and forcing tens of thousands to flee, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain through contacts in Syria.
Douma is the last remaining town in the area still controlled by rebels, and the Syrian government has vowed to retake it.


A picture said to show victims of the attack in a building in Douma. Credit Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, via Associated Press A day earlier, after the government began a new offensive against the area, Hussein Mortada, a Lebanese reporter who supports the Syrian government, released a video of himself on a hill near Douma as columns of smoke from government attacks rose in the background.
“These are appetizers,” he said. “The story is bigger than a ground invasion. There is something they will see today if the story continues. They will feel something very strong.”

The intensity of the shelling and airstrikes caused many residents to seek safety in basements, which could have made them more vulnerable to poisonous gases.

On Saturday afternoon, 15 people, including women and children, reported breathing problems after an airstrike in their area, Mahmoud Aadam, a spokesman for the Syrian Civil Defense, the so-called White Helmets, who rescue people in the wake of airstrikes, said via Facebook Live on Sunday.
Then, after dark, a government helicopter dropped exploding barrels that dispersed an unknown chemical substance that affected many more people, Mr. Aadam said. The continued assaults made it hard for rescue workers to look for victims, he said, meaning that it was difficult to establish a comprehensive death toll.
As of Sunday morning, rescue workers were “going into homes and finding people dead,” he said.

In a joint statement, the Syrian Civil Defense and the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports clinics in opposition areas of Syria, said that more than 500 people had gone to medical centers after the assault “with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent.” Those symptoms included trouble breathing, foaming at the mouth, burning eyes and the “emission of a chlorine-like odor.”
One person was dead on arrival at a clinic, six others died after they got there, and rescue workers reported finding more than 42 dead in their homes, the statement said. The bodies could not be evacuated because of strong odors and a lack of protective equipment.
“The reported symptoms indicate that the victims suffocated from the exposure to toxic chemicals,” the statement said.



Pro-Syrian government forces advancing toward Douma on Saturday. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which did not confirm the use of chemical agents, said that 56 people, including women and children, had been killed in the past 24 hours, including 21 who suffocated in the basements of buildings that had collapsed on them. About 500 others were wounded in the bombardment, and 70 had breathing troubles, the group said.
“The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable, and any further attacks prevented immediately,” a State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said in a statement. Ms. Nauert noted a sarin gas attack in April 2017 in northwestern Syria that the United States and the United Nations blamed on the Syrian government.
“The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks,” Ms. Nauert said.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian of France on Sunday said reports of the chemical attack were extremely worrying and called for the United Nations Security Council to meet quickly to examine the situation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the reports as fake.
“The spread of bogus stories about the use of chlorine and other poisonous substances by government forces continues,” the ministry said in a statement. “The aim of such deceitful speculation, lacking any kind of grounding, is to shield terrorists,” it added, “and to attempt to justify possible external uses of force.”
Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday that reports of the gas attack were not based on facts and were an “an excuse” by the United States and Western countries to take military action against Damascus, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Mr. Obama struggled with how to respond to such attacks in Syria. After declaring the use of chemical weapons a “red line,” he declined to respond militarily when a chemical attack by the Syrian government in 2013 killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus, according to a United States assessment.
Instead, the United States and Russia reached an agreement to have Syria surrender its chemical weapons stockpiles and dismantle its capabilities to make new ones.

The agreement was celebrated at the time, but multiple chemical attacks since then have been blamed on the Syrian government, raising questions about how effective the agreement was.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/08/w...T.nav=top-news

Let us remember obama's involvement in pushing for "arab spring" in the entire region, arming rebels to remove assad and creating isis.

These overpopulated inbred muslim countries don't give a damn about their people - this is how they control overpopulation.

The rebels agreed today to leave Ghouta, so peace is around the corner, let Russia handle it. We need to start withdrawing and stay out of it.

Originally Posted by Judy

The rebels agreed today to leave Ghouta, so peace is around the corner, let Russia handle it. We need to start withdrawing and stay out of it.

Russia is participating with Assad in the extermination of innocent civilians!