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

Tensions Rise in Syria as Israel Is Accused of Bombing Air Base

By BEN HUBBARDAPRIL 9, 2018

International By THE NEW YORK TIMES 00:43 deos posted online appeared to show missiles over Homs Province, where a military
By THE NEW YORK TIMES on Publish Date April 9, 2018. . Watch in Times Video »

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Big power tensions in the Syria conflict, already running high after an apparent chemical weapons attack, ratcheted up again on Monday as Syria and Russia blamed Israel for early morning airstrikes on a Syrian military base that a conflict monitoring group said had killed 14 people, including fightersfrom Iran.
The strikes came a day after President Trump called President Bashar al-Assad of Syria an “animal” and warned him and his Russian and Iranian backers they would have a “big price to pay” after dozens of people were killed on Saturday near Damascus, in what rescue workers said was a chemical attack.
Russia did not respond immediately to the accusation, though a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin rejected Mr. Trump’s inflammatory language. “Assad is the legitimate president of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said. “It’s hardly acceptable to apply that sort of abusive wording to a president.”

American and French officials denied that their countries had carried out the airstrikes, and a spokesman for the Israeli military declined to comment.

The war in Syria has sucked in fighters from around the world, as well as global powers including Iran, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the United States, all of which are seeking to advance their interests in the Middle East while avoiding direct confrontations with the others.

The latest escalation comes at a pivotal time for the United States, as Mr. Trump charts the American course in Syria. He said last week that he wanted to withdraw the approximately 2,000 American troops based in eastern Syria, where they are fighting the jihadists of the Islamic State, but his vow to respond to the reported chemical attack on Saturday risks pulling him into Syria in other ways.
The airstrikes on Monday hit a Syrian military base known as T4, in the central province of Homs, that has been used not only by Syrian forces but also by the Iranian-backed militias that have flocked to the country to help Mr. Assad’s war effort.

The Russian military said in a statement on Monday that two Israeli F-15 warplanes had launched the strikes, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. The statement said the planes had fired from Lebanese airspace and that Syria’s air defense systems had shot down five of the eight missiles fired.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict in Syria from Britain through contacts on the ground, said that at least 14 people had been killed in the strikes on the air base, including fighters from “Syrian, Arab and Asian nationalities.” The group’s director told The Associated Press that most of the dead were Iranians or fighters from Iranian-backed militias.
On Sunday, the National News Agency of Lebanon reported that Israeli surveillance aircraft had been hovering over the country’s northeast, near the border with Syria, for three days. The Lebanese Army said in a statement that four Israeli airplanes had violated Lebanon’s airspace before dawn on Monday, crossing from the Mediterranean toward the Syrian border. The army did not say whether the planes had carried out the strikes.
Israel has struck the T4 air base at least once before, in February, after Israel intercepted what it said was an Iranian drone that had penetrated its airspace. Minutes later, the Israeli military attacked what it called the command-and-control center from which Iran had launched the drone, at the Syrian air base near Palmyra. Syrian antiaircraft missiles then shot down one of Israel’s F-16 fighter jets on its way back from the mission.

The first Israeli plane lost under enemy fire in decades, it crashed in northern Israel and prompted a broad wave of Israeli strikes against a dozen Syrian and Iranian targets in Syrian territory.
Throughout seven years of war in Syria, Israel has resisted direct involvement, but it has repeatedly bombed convoys in Syria that were believed to be transporting weapons and other supplies to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia and political party that is dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Despite Mr. Trump’s promise to respond to the reported chemical attack in Syria on Saturday, which killed at least 49 people in the Damascus suburb of Douma, it remained unclear what he would do and how it would relate to a broader American policy toward Syria.
After a similar attack killed scores of people in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in northwestern Syria a year ago, Mr. Trump ordered missile strikes on the Syrian air base where the attacks had originated.

Hours after the attack on Saturday, the rebel group in control of Douma reportedly surrendered, agreeing to a deal with the government that would have thousands of its fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives bused to another rebel-held area in northern Syria.
The fall of Douma’s rebels, who had controlled the town and surrounding ones since the early years of the war, would consolidate the Syrian government’s control of the center of the country, making Mr. Assad more secure.
Dozens of prisoners the Syrian government said had been held by the rebels since 2013 were released early Monday, and buses began entering the town to remove them, news agencies reported.
Israel, which shares a frontier with Syria, has been concerned throughout the conflict about the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons. On Sunday, Yitzchak Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, condemned the reported chemical attack.
“I have said in the past and I will say it again: What is happening in Syria is genocide of women and children in its cruelest form, using weapons of mass destruction,” he said in a statement. “We have a moral obligation not to keep quiet and to try and stop this massacre.”
While the chief rabbi does not set policy, he does reflect the feelings of many in Israel.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/w...T.nav=top-news

U.S. officials confirm Israel hit Syria after suspected Ghouta chemical attack

The strike came hours after a deadly suspected poison gas attack near Damascus.
by The Associated Press, Ken Dilanian and Courtney Kube
Apr.09.2018 / 7:15 AM ET / Updated 8:43 AM ET

WASHINGTON — Israel carried out air strikes against a Syrian air base early Monday morning and informed the U.S. in advance, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

The pre-dawn missile attack came hours after a deadly suspected poison gas attack on the last remaining foothold for rebels fighting the Assad regime.

A war-monitoring group said the overnight airstrikes killed 14 people, according to the Associated Press.

Russia's Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five missiles while the other three landed in the western part of the base. Israel's foreign ministry had no comment when the AP asked about the reports.

Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons' convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

Most recently, Israel hit the same T4 base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that had violated Israeli airspace took off from the base. The base, which was used as a launching pad for counter offensive attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed close by, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by U.S. missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack.

President Donald Trump on Sunday warned there would be a "big price to pay" after Saturday's suspected poison gas attack in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. At least 40 people were killed in that assault, including families found in their homes and shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

Trump blamed Syrian government forces for what he called a "mindless CHEMICAL attack." In a series of tweets, Trump held Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar Assad's chief sponsors, responsible.

In his tweets Sunday, the president called Assad an "animal" and delivered a rare personal criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has declared his intent to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in the coming months, despite resistance from many of his advisers.

Trump was expected to meet with senior military leadership later Monday, as his new national security adviser, John Bolton, assumes his post. Bolton has previously advocated significant airstrikes against Syria.

The Syrian government denied the chemical weapons allegations, calling them fabrications.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called reports of the attack a "provocation." He said the Russian military visited the site of the suspected attack and found no traces of the chemicals.

First responders entering apartments in Douma late Saturday said they found bodies collapsed on floors, some foaming at the mouth. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense rescue organization said the victims appeared to have suffocated.

More than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers complaining of difficulties breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes. Some had bluish skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation, according to a statement, symptoms consistent with chemical exposure.

Syria's state news agency SANA said the overnight airstrike resulted in a number of casualties but provided no specific figures. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of activists on the ground, said 14 died, including Iranians and also three Syrian officers.

Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory's chief, said the assault targeted a mobile air defense unit and some buildings inside the air base. He added that it also hit posts outside the base used by the Iranians and Iran-backed fighters.

Israel fears Iran could use Syria's territory to stage attacks on it. The U.S. launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base last year, after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during the war and says it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/i...attack-n863821

Some information on White Helmets:

It won't copy and paste:

http://www.cheriberens.net/white-hel...overnment.html

Someone trustworthy like Judicial Watch needs to investigate this organization called White Helmets that circulates these videos in Syria to world media. I thought the Arab Spring videos were fake years ago from just looking at them. And these videos are very similar, things aren't normal in them, they don't make sense. So I think there is a possibility that these videos are fabricated to prolong the war and trick the US into responding to the claims of chemical attacks. Syria may have used them in the past, but I really don't think they're using them or last year.

Assad isn't the problem in Syria. The rebels, Islamic extremist wack-o-doodles are the problem in Syria, so why are we supporting Islamic extremists against a legitimate secular government in Syria? This makes no sense. We should not be doing that, running ISIS out, fine, but supporting these rebels in any manner is just the wrong thing to do for Syria or the United States.

Originally Posted by Judy

Someone trustworthy like Judicial Watch needs to investigate this organization called White Helmets that circulates these videos in Syria to world media. I thought the Arab Spring videos were fake years ago from just looking at them. And these videos are very similar, things aren't normal in them, they don't make sense. So I think there is a possibility that these videos are fabricated to prolong the war and trick the US into responding to the claims of chemical attacks. Syria may have used them in the past, but I really don't think they're using them or last year.

Assad isn't the problem in Syria. The rebels, Islamic extremist wack-o-doodles are the problem in Syria, so why are we supporting Islamic extremists against a legitimate secular government in Syria? This makes no sense. We should not be doing that, running ISIS out, fine, but supporting these rebels in any manner is just the wrong thing to do for Syria or the United States.

Hmm, so now you're going to be a spokesman for Bashar Assad against the White Helmets? I guess that shouldn't be surprising since you've shown yourself to be a supporter of Assad's.



Who Are the White Helmets?

The group has saved more than 60,000 people in Syria—a feat that has put them in contention for the Nobel Peace Prize.



The White Helmets in Aleppo, SyriaWhite Helmets

• YASMEEN SERHAN
• SEP 30, 2016

When airstrikes rain down on rebel-held parts of Syria, a group of 3,000 civilian volunteers are usually the first to respond.

The Syrian Civil Defense, known commonly as the White Helmets, is a volunteer corps of Syrians who act as first responders in the Syrian civil war, which is now in its sixth year. Established in 2013, the group’s charter is simple: to carry out search-and-rescue operations to save the maximum number of lives.

Inspired by a Quranic verse that says “to save a life is to save all of humanity,” the group has rescued more than 60,000 people—a feat that earned them the Right to Livelihood Award, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” in recognition for their “outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians.” It has also put them in contention for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Although it has received support from many organizations and high-profile figures, it has been criticized by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime—and by Assad himself—for its ties to Western governments, from which the group receives millions of dollars in funding.

At least 141 White Helmets have been killed during rescue missions and three of the organization’s four centers in Aleppo were bombed last week. As the Syrian government’s latest bombardment of Aleppo intensifies, the organization warns it may not be able to continue as it once has.

“We are abandoned,” Raed al-Saleh, the head of the organization, said Wednesday at UN headquarters in New York.

I spoke with Joanna Natasegara and Orlando von Einsiedel, the Academy Award–nominated filmmakers behind Netflix’s latest documentary, the White Helmets, which provides a firsthand look into the organization’s work from the perspective of three of its members. Our conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.

---

Yasmeen Serhan: Who makes up this organization?

Joanna Natasegara: They come from everywhere and every walk of life. Some of them are students, some of them are professionals, and many, many of them are not. Lots of them are blue-collar workers doing very ordinary jobs who just want to be involved in something that’s positive. The three we focus on are—

Orlando von Einsiedel: A taylor, a blacksmith, and a builder.

Natasegara: It’s a sweet trio of jobs.

Serhan: With such an assortment of people coming together, one can imagine their individual backgrounds lend themselves useful in one way or another. But as the film shows, you have volunteers extinguishing fires and pulling people out of the rubble—not exactly your everyday skills. How are they trained?

Von Einsiedel: These guys all made this decision to not flee Syria, to not pick up a gun, and instead to every day risk their lives to save others. It’s quite an extraordinary decision they’ve all made. And the reason they do the training is because they don’t necessarily have those skills—they’re normal people just like me and you. There’s an organization called Akut, a Turkish organization which became well known during the earthquake in Turkey a couple of years ago, and they sort of specialize in that kind of rescue. And the reason it’s very applicable to what White Helmets are doing is because when those barrel bombs are chucked out the helicopters, the effect on cities like Aleppo is sort of like an earthquake—buildings collapse, people need to be pulled out of the rubble—so the skills are very transferable.

White Helmets undergoing training to evacuate people from the rubble.

Serhan: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was asked in an interview last week about whether he thought the White Helmets deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to which he responded asking, “What did they achieve in Syria?” How would you answer his question?

Natasegara: They have 120 centers in non-regime-controlled Syria, and that’s because they are not allowed to work in regime-controlled Syria, not because they don’t want to. They have saved 60,000 lives, and those are the ones that they can record, so the real number that they must have saved is actually bigger. And while so many people talk about the lives they save, they also deal with infrastructure and they bury the dead, which is not very well talked about—the amount of dignity that they give to those who lose their lives in Syria also has to be noted, I think. But for us, in terms of what they’ve done for Syria, I think that doesn’t come to question at all. They’re absolutely heroic and driven by this almost unbelievable integrity that everyone in war should be given as a sign of dignity.

Serhan: As filmmakers, what effect are you hoping this documentary has?

Von Einsiedel: Syria is such a hard issue for people to engage with because it’s gone on for so long, and it’s so upsetting, and it feels very hopeless, and that’s a problem. The White Helmets and what they do is a story of hope and these guys are, they are real heroes. And that’s not just hyperbole. We’ve been very fortunate in our work to be able to travel a lot and met lots of extraordinary people, but there’s not very many people on this Earth I’ve ever met who are as incredible as these men and women. And we think their story resonates—it cuts through everything else. It cuts through politics. It’s a pure human story.

Serhan: What do you think international audiences misunderstand the most about this conflict?

Von Einsiedel: Over the course of the last couple of years, the narrative coming out about Syria has very much been focused on ISIS, and terrorism, and the refugee crisis. Those are clearly important stories, but what’s happening to the millions of civilians left inside Syria, especially in non-regime controlled areas, and the daily bombings that they face—that narrative has shifted down the headlines. And the story of the White Helmets brings that very much back into focus.

Serhan: How did you first hear of the White Helmets?

Von Einsiedel: Some friends showed us the video of Mahmoud the “Miracle Baby” being rescued ... I think it even had more resonance when we realized who the actual rescuers were, this group of civilian volunteers. And from that point on, it just felt like a story that we really needed to tell.

A member of the White Helmets posing with Mahmoud the “Miracle Baby.”

Serhan: What has the reception of the film been so far?

Natasegara: It’s been very encouraging. Particularly the response from young people is for me heartening. You can see that young people are very interested in issues, they are very interested in foreign affairs and what is happening around the world. They want to engage in a way where they don’t feel patronized or that the news doesn’t represent them or doesn’t speak to them, and I think documentaries really do that—they bridge that divide.

Von Einsiedel: There was a moment early last week where we listened to a podcast done by two young guys somewhere in the Midwest, and they couldn’t even pronounce Syria because they obviously knew very little about it. But how they responded to the documentary … talking about how they had all these stereotypes about what Muslim guys from the Middle East might be like and how the film had broken down a lot of those preconceptions, that was really, really fascinating and says a lot about what we hope this film might be able to do.

Serhan: The White Helmets have gotten considerable international attention for their work. When you spoke with the volunteers, did you get the sense as though they felt they were finally being heard?

Natasegara: If they felt they were being heard, they wouldn’t need to be rescuing as many people as they are. Certainly there is an onus on us all to witness that in a more significant way. It’s probably one of the worst wars of our lifetimes and what we see in this documentary is Syrians acting to save themselves—and not only trained Syrians, but ordinary everyday Syrians— acting to save themselves because there is nobody else. I think that says everything we need to know.

• 
  https://www.theatlantic.com/news/arc...elmets/502073/

I'm not pro-Assad, I'm just not anti-Assad. I support the Syrian government which is a duly elected secular government that until this civil war broke out had governed well a very nice, highly educated, diverse, cosmopolitan and stable country for many years. I don't want these crazy Islamic extremists to take over Syria or any other country. Why would you?!! The Syrian Civil War that has caused all these deaths and refugees is John Kerry/ Barack Obama Stupidity. Why would you support such a thing or any organization like the White Helmets who are trying to prolong this war they've already lost with these unproven claims and very dubious videos?

I guess by your standards that makes you Pro-Obama.

Originally Posted by Judy

I'm not pro-Assad, I'm just not anti-Assad. I support the Syrian government which is a duly elected secular government that until this civil war broke out had governed well a very nice, highly educated, diverse, cosmopolitan and stable country for many years. I don't want these crazy Islamic extremists to take over Syria or any other country. Why would you?!! The Syrian Civil War that has caused all these deaths and refugees is John Kerry/ Barack Obama Stupidity. Why would you support such a thing or any organization like the White Helmets who are trying to prolong this war they've already lost with these unproven claims and very dubious videos?

I guess by your standards that makes you Pro-Obama.

Bashar Assad is a brutal dictator. President Bashar Assad and the Syrian government are one and the same! That's how it works under a dictatorship.

He's their "brutal dictator" and it's none of our business. This family has ruled Syria successfully for 65 years and I expect it will continue to do so. Yes, they are very harsh or "brutal" against Islamic extremists trying to take over the country and turn it into an Islamic State. The majority of Syrians do not want an Islamic State run by these backward Wack-O-Doodles.

Originally Posted by Judy

He's their "brutal dictator" and it's none of our business. This family has ruled Syria successfully for 65 years and I expect it will continue to do so. Yes, they are very harsh or "brutal" against Islamic extremists trying to take over the country and turn it into an Islamic State. The majority of Syrians do not want an Islamic State run by these backward Wack-O-Doodles.

Tell that to the women and children that were gased in their own beds.

These women and children are no different than the women and children they killed in the civil war they started. I've really no sympathy for them. I also don't believe the phony videos either. But if you do, that's fine, that's your business. I just hope your aren't clamoring for a ramp up of engagement by the United States in Syria.