Syria crisis: Rebels claim hundreds killed in government chemical weapons attack - live updates

theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013

Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region, in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus, on 21 August, 2013. Photograph: Reuters

 

"If today's attack is confirmed as one using chemical weapons, even lower estimates of the number of deaths, would make it the worst chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein massacred 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.

The upper estimate of the death toll from the attacks on the Damascus suburbs now stands at almost 1,200. Leena al-Shami, from a Damascus-based opposition group, claims the total killed has reached 1,188, excluding Mouadamiyeh in western Ghouta. The Guardian has no way of independently verifying the death toll.....

Chemical weapons expert Jean Pascal Zanders writes on The Trench that he has been sceptical about previous claims of their use in Syria but in the latest case "it is clear that something terrible has happened":

The footage from the current alleged attack(s) in the Ghouta district seems to offer more convincing evidence of poisoning through asphyxiation (witness the pinkish-bluish hue on the faces of some of the fatalities). Further elements that seem to confirm exposure to toxicants are the unfocussed and rolling eyes, severe breathing difficulties, in one instance a very erect penis, and possible signs of urination or defecation on trousers (although this is difficult to say, given that the hospital floor is covered with water as staff seems to hose water over every victim). None of the victims appeared to have external wounds from blast, shrapnel or bullets.
I am not sure whether the claims of nerve agent use accompanying the footage and images are correct. The people are not convulsing (except for one man shaking his legs while shouting out, but the remainder of his body does not suffer from involuntary contractions) and I have not seen anybody applying nerve agent antidotes. Nor do medical staff and other people appear to suffer from secondary exposure while carrying or treating victims.

It is clear that something terrible has happened. The scenes could not have been stage managed...."