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'Chemical attack' in Syria kills at least 58 people

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Saya

Member
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At least 58 people, including 11 children, were killed in an air raid that released "toxic gas" on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun on Tuesday, a monitor said.

Tuesday's attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming out of their mouths, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described it as a sign of a gas attack.

Damascus has repeatedly denied using such weapons.

The monitoring group, which monitors the war through a network of contacts on the ground, was unable to confirm the nature of the substance.

Syrian government or Russian jets pounded the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idib in the morning, the monitoring group said.

The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment..
 

Trokil

Banned
This such a sad thing and also a war crime, but will probably get less coverage than ISIS blowing up some old buildings.

People start to forget about that war already.
 
"The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment."

I can predict their comment will be that the rebels gassed themselves and a million Russian bots will back them.
 

scream

Member
Legit question: why use something so horrible to kill "just" 58 people?
Isnt this kind of weapon is used in order to kill by the thausands?
 
No, no guys.

The rebels gassed themselves and are using it for propaganda purposes.

Legit question: why use something so horrible to kill "just" 58 people?
Isnt this kind of weapon is used in order to kill by the thausands?

You can't predict how many you are going to kill exactly with chemical weapons, the wind blowing in a certain direction can change the whole outcome of an attack. That's why they are illegal.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Nobody seems to care anymore. US Drone Bombing 200 civilians, whoever did this... nothing really gets coverage. Its like people are annoying with news from that area, dont generate enough clicks because of that so news media covers whatever crap that gets them clicks.

No one being held accountable is a shame, thats Assad, Russia, US and EU.
 

Flai

Member
I don't understand why the SAA would use chemical weapons. They seem to be doing pretty well against ISIS, and even though the rebels/FSA has captured some areas north of Hama and near Damascus, it hardly seems worth it to start doing war crimes when they are holding pretty well with conventional warfare tactics.
 

Jackpot

Banned
I don't understand why the SAA would use chemical weapons. They seem to be doing pretty well against ISIS, and even though the rebels/FSA has captured some areas north of Hama and near Damascus, it hardly seems worth it to start doing war crimes when they are holding pretty well with conventional warfare tactics.

"start"?

They've been doing this the whole campaign.
 

Zoon

Member
I remember that Syria's chemical arsenal was supposed to be destroyed a couple of years ago. Or was it about a specific chemical weapon?
 

Xando

Member
I don't understand why the SAA would use chemical weapons. They seem to be doing pretty well against ISIS, and even though the rebels/FSA has captured some areas north of Hama and near Damascus, it hardly seems worth it to start doing war crimes when they are holding pretty well with conventional warfare tactics.

They've done this before and only stopped due to Obama applying pressure and now seem to be starting it up again.
 

Flai

Member
"start"?

They've been doing this the whole campaign.

I know, I should've said "start again" or continue or something. I mean, as far as I know, they are not using chemical weapons continously. I follow the SAA fight against ISIS almost daily and I can't remember seeing any reports of SAA using chemical weapons in the fight against ISIS in the past year or so.

They've done this before and only stopped due to Obama applying pressure and now seem to be starting it up again.

Yeah, but why? They seem to be doing just fine without them and Syria (and Russia) knows that they will be heavily condemned for using chemical weapons.
And the place where the chemical weapons were used are no where near the front-lines where there's fighting going on.
 
I remember that Syria's chemical arsenal was supposed to be destroyed a couple of years ago. Or was it about a specific chemical weapon?

Even if Syria indeed destroyed 100% of their chemical weapons it's trivial for a nation to make more nerve gas.
 

Xando

Member
Yeah, but why? They seem to be doing just fine without them and Syria (and Russia) knows that they will be heavily condemned for using chemical weapons.
And the place where the chemical weapons were used are no where near the front-lines where there's fighting going on.

Gassing people is much easier for them than to send ground forces to opposition villages. Now that Trump is in office it seems Russia and Assad don't fear intervention or other measures against anymore
 

Sijil

Member
Yeah no, not buying it. The people reporting it, mainly Hadi Abdallah and other local sources have strong ties to HTS, previously Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria) and not to mention Al Jazeera who is vehemently pro rebel, a Qatari and Nusra mouthpiece and lacks any sort of professional neutrality in reporting. This is deja vu, every time they suffer a defeat they orchestrate a propaganda piece to justify their defeat.

HTS launched an offensive last week on northern Hama violating the Asetana COH, while HTS was not a signatory all the FSA groups fighting with it signed the deal. They thought they would surprise the garrison at Hama and take the prized city. Now they're suffering an embarrassing defeat and are looking at saving face.

All the chemical stockpiles the SAA had were destroyed by the UN and the UN is monitoring closely. Why would the SAA drop chemical weapons on an isolated civilian target after they routed HTS when they could've used the chemical weapons last week on massed HTS infantry while the SAA was on the defensive and loosing ground?

Gassing people is much easier for them than to send ground forces to opposition villages. Now that Trump is in office it seems Russia and Assad don't fear intervention or other measures against anymore

Khan Sheykhoun is several kilometeres away from the nearest SAA position, if the SAA wants to enter it, it would take months and hundreds of soldiers dead. If they wanted to wipe the city off the map with gas, they're going to need a lot more than a single payload.
 

Kolx

Member
I don't understand why the SAA would use chemical weapons. They seem to be doing pretty well against ISIS, and even though the rebels/FSA has captured some areas north of Hama and near Damascus, it hardly seems worth it to start doing war crimes when they are holding pretty well with conventional warfare tactics.

Alassad killed tens of thousands of civilians in a few years. He used the chemical weapons multiple times mostly against areas where there was no direct conflict aka not on the front line. You think he gives a shit when he uses it yet once again? specially since the world is apparently ok with it.

I know, I should've said "start again" or continue or something. I mean, as far as I know, they are not using chemical weapons continously. I follow the SAA fight against ISIS almost daily and I can't remember seeing any reports of SAA using chemical weapons in the fight against ISIS in the past year or so.



Yeah, but why? They seem to be doing just fine without them and Syria (and Russia) knows that they will be heavily condemned for using chemical weapons.
And the place where the chemical weapons were used are no where near the front-lines where there's fighting going on.

Most chemicals attacks has been against rebels held area not ISIS.

Why would they drop chemical weapons, it makes no sense. The backlash could be huge and they would gain nothing.

If the rebels actually gassed their own people for propaganda I hope there is hell to pay.
You needed to ask this question years ago, and maybe if the world treated this problem as it needed you wouldn't have asked this question in this thread.
 

Skyzard

Banned
Why would they drop chemical weapons, it makes no sense. The backlash could be huge and they would gain nothing.

If the rebels actually gassed their own people for propaganda I hope there is hell to pay.

It fucking sucks that they don't investigate this shit.

RIP.
 

Sijil

Member
Why would they drop chemical weapons, it makes no sense.

If the rebels actually gassed their own people for propaganda I hope there is hell to pay.

An air strike could've struck a gas canister storage facility, or the Rebels were stockpiling Sarin and the depot was hit, if ISIS can manufacture Sarin then so can HTS and their allies.
 
An air strike could've struck a gas canister storage facility, or the Rebels were stockpiling Sarin and the depot was hit, if ISIS can manufacture Sarin then so can HTS and their allies.

Why would the rebels stockpile sarin and not use it immediately against the Syrian army ?
 

Kolx

Member
An air strike could've struck a gas canister storage facility, or the Rebels were stockpiling Sarin and the depot was hit, if ISIS can manufacture Sarin then so can HTS and their allies.

Do you have a source? just because they can (which is questionable) doesn't mean they did.
 
Why would the rebels stockpile sarin and not use it immediately against the Syrian army ?
U need a payload delivery system.

If I remember well so that's Syrian human right observatory is one guy in London?
Don't really see why I should trust him more than the Syrian government.
 

Jackpot

Banned
Why would they drop chemical weapons, it makes no sense. The backlash could be huge and they would gain nothing.

"Why would people criticised as being mass-murdering psychopaths do something that shows they're mass-murdering psychopaths? It makes no sense!"

Up there with "why did Ukrainian rebels shoot down a civilian air liner when it only hurts them?" And cue the false flag claims...
 

Sijil

Member
Do you have a source? just because they can (which is questionable) doesn't mean they did.

Same goes for the government, if we're going to speculate that the gov violated UN mandates and started producing chemical weapons again despite the possibility of international retaliation, then I can speculate that HTS can produce Sarin gas similar to ISIS.

Why would the rebels stockpile sarin and not use it immediately against the Syrian army ?

ISIS used Sarin in IED and VBIEDs, they could use the same MO.
 

Kolx

Member
U need a payload delivery system.

If I remember well so that's Syrian human right observatory is one guy in London?
Don't really see why I should trust him more than the Syrian government.

He's one guy at london with people on the ground reporting, but sure why not trust a dictator who has been proven thousands of times with videos everywhere to use weapons like explosives barrels on civilian area be trusted the same as an organization who reported on both side whenever they do something wrong. It's not their mistake Alassad committed way more war crimes than any other party in Syria.
 

Kolx

Member
Same goes for the government, if we're going to speculate that the gov violated UN mandates and started producing chemical weapons again despite the possibility of international retaliation, then I can speculate that HTS can produce Sarin gas similar to ISIS.

It doesn't work like that tho. The government used chemical gas multiple times before as documented by the UN and has the capability to produce more chemical weapons again. The same doesn't apply to the rebels here, and how is ISIS doing something means the rebels can do the same? many weapons produced by ISIS are not produced by rebels and vice versa.
 

BasicMath

Member
U need a payload delivery system.

If I remember well so that's Syrian human right observatory is one guy in London?
Don't really see why I should trust him more than the Syrian government.
Yeah, it's one lone dude in the UK who sells clothes or something like that. I don't trust the source at all either.
 

RinsFury

Member
Ugh. Fuck Assad and fuck all the external players that helped set this conflict in motion. I really hate this world.
 
Same goes for the government, if we're going to speculate that the gov violated UN mandates and started producing chemical weapons again despite the possibility of international retaliation, then I can speculate that HTS can produce Sarin gas similar to ISIS.
Please give me one reason why they should be worried about "international retaliation." Or what international retallation would even look like.

No one has done jack fucking shit so far and the only country that would actually go in and do anything to them is currently ruled by a puppet of Putin, who has openly said he doesn't give a fuck what happens in Syria anymore and isn't interested in putting pressure on Assad
 

chadskin

Member
AFP: #BREAKING Erdogan tells Putin 'inhuman' Syria chemical attack could endanger peace talks: sources

AFP: #BREAKING France calls for UN Security Council meet on Syria 'chemical' attack

Some of these images and videos from the chemical attack are beyond sickening.
 

spineduke

Unconfirmed Member
Where's our resident Assad apologist? Waiting for him to make his usual round of whataboutisms.

Nevermind, he's already here throwing his lies around.
 
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