On 7 April 2018, a chemical warfare attack was launched in the city of Douma, Syria by the military of the Ba'athist regime led by Bashar al-Assad. Medics and witnesses reported that it caused the deaths of between 40 and 50 people and injuries to possibly well over 100. The attack was attributed to the Syrian Army by rebel forces in Douma, and by the United States, British, and French governments. A two-year long investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) concluded in January 2023 that the Syrian Air Force perpetrated the attack, dropping two cylinders, one of which hit the rooftop floor of a three-story residential building and released chlorine gas. On 14 April 2018, the United States, France and the United Kingdom carried out a series of military strikes against two alleged chemical weapons facilities of the Syrian government.
Background
According to Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and United Nations investigations, both the Syrian Arab Republic's forces and Islamic State militants have used chemical weapons during the conflict. Human Rights Watch has documented 85 chemical weapons attacks in Syria since 2013, and its sources indicate the Syrian government is responsible for the majority. People reported incidents of chemical weapons use specifically in Douma in January 2018; Russia vetoed a potential United Nations mission to investigate. The Arms Control Association reported two smaller chlorine gas attacks in Douma on 7 March and 11 March.
Douma had been under rebel control since 18 October 2012, and, with the rest of the Eastern Ghouta region, under siege since April 2013. The Rif Dimashq offensive (February–April 2018), code-named Operation Damascus Steel, a military offensive launched by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies on 18 February 2018 to capture the rebel-held territory. The Jaysh al-Islam rebel coalition controlled Douma. By mid-March, rebel territory in Eastern Ghouta had reduced to three pockets, one in the south around Hamouria held by Faylaq al-Rahman; a second in the west around Harasta held by Ahrar al-Sham; as well as Douma in the north held by Jaysh al-Islam. In the second half of March, the other two pockets were secured via evacuation deals between the rebels, Syria, and Russia. On 31 March, the last of the evacuations was conducted and the Syrian army declared victory in Eastern Ghouta, while the rebels that were still holding out in Douma were given an ultimatum to surrender by the end of the day.
Reports
A chemical attack in Douma occurred on 7 April 2018. The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, a humanitarian organization that supervises medical services in the region, attributed seventy deaths to the attack. On-site medics reported smelling a chlorine-like odour, but that symptoms and death toll pointed to something more noxious such as sarin nerve agent caused the deaths. A video from the scene showed dead men, women, and children with foam at their mouths.
The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) reported over 500 injured people at Douma "were brought to local medical centers with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent." SAMS also said a chlorine bomb struck a Douma hospital, killing six people, and that another attack with "mixed agents" affected a building nearby. According to the Syrian opposition groups, witnesses also reported a strong smell of chlorine and said effects appeared stronger than in previous similar attacks. Syrian opposition activists also posted videos of yellow compressed gas cylinders that they said were used during the attack. Based on the symptoms and the speed with which the victims were affected, medical workers and experts suggested either a combination of chlorine with another gas or a nerve agent was used. Several medical, monitoring, and activist groups—including the White Helmets—reported that two Syrian Air Force Mi-8 helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the city of Douma. The bombs caused severe convulsions in some residents and suffocated others.
On 6 July 2018, an interim report was issued by the OPCW. Various chlorinated organic chemicals (dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, chlorophenol, dichlorophenol, bornyl chloride, chloral hydrate etc.) were found in samples, along with residues of explosive, but the designated laboratory 03 stated that no CWC-scheduled chemicals or nerve agent-related chemicals were detected. In September 2018 the United Nations Commission of Enquiry on Syria reported: "Throughout 7 April, numerous aerial attacks were carried out in Douma, striking various residential areas. A vast body of evidence collected by the Commission suggests that, at approximately 7.30 p.m., a gas cylinder containing a chlorine payload delivered by helicopter struck a multi-storey residential apartment building located approximately 100 metres south-west of Shohada square. The Commission received information on the death of at least 49 individuals, and the wounding of up to 650 others."
While it was initially unclear which chemicals had been used, in 2019 the OPCW FFM (Fact-Finding Mission) report concluded: "Regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on 7 April 2018 in Douma, the Syrian Arab Republic, the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM—witnesses' testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts, additional digital information from witnesses—provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine." The OPCW said it found no evidence to support the Assad government's claim that a local facility was being used by rebel fighters to produce chemical weapons.
Aftermath
The day after the chemical attack, all rebels controlling Douma agreed to a deal with the government to surrender the area.
In the early hours of 9 April 2018, an air strike was conducted against Tiyas Military Airbase. Two Israeli F-15I jets reportedly attacked the airfield from Lebanese airspace, firing eight missiles, of which five were intercepted, according to claims by Russia. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, at least 14 people were killed and more were wounded.
On 10 April, member states proposed competing UN Security Council resolutions to handle the response to the chemical attack. The U.S., France, and UK vetoed a Russian-proposed UN resolution. Russia had also vetoed the U.S.'s proposed resolution to create "a new investigative mechanism to look into chemical weapons attacks in Syria and determine who is responsible."
On 14 April, France, the United Kingdom and the United States launched missiles against four Syrian government targets in response to the attack. The strikes were claimed to successfully destroy the chemical weapons capabilities of Syria. Nevertheless, according to Pentagon, the Syrian Arab Republic still retains the ability to launch chemical weapons attacks.
Investigations and reports
CBS journalist Seth Doane also traveled to Douma on 16 April, finding the site of the alleged attack where a neighbor reported a choking gas that smelled like chlorine. He took Doane to site of the impact and showed where the remains of a missile rested. Eliot Higgins, a citizen journalist, founder of Bellingcat, and blogger investigating the Syrian civil war, concluded based on geographical, video, and open source evidence that the chlorine gas was dropped by one of two Mi-8 helicopters taking off from Dumayr Airbase 30 minutes earlier. Military officials in the US, UK, and France all insisted the bomb had been dropped from one of two Syrian government helicopters flying from the airbase at Dumayr.
The Guardian reported testimony from witnesses that medical personnel in Douma faced "extreme intimidation" from Syrian officials for them to remain silent about their patients' treatment. They and their families were allegedly threatened by the Syrian government. Medics who tried to leave the area were said to have been heavily searched in case they were transporting samples. The Guardian described Russian state media as "pushing" two lines; that they have spoken to witnesses denying the occurrence of any attacks, and that they have found chlorine-filled canisters in Douma "used for rebel attacks later blamed on the regime."
In June 2018, a New York Times investigation found that Syrian military helicopters dropped a chlorine bomb on the rooftop balcony of an apartment building in Douma. At least 34 victims were counted and their bodies "showed horrific signs of chemical exposure." Dozens of videos and photos were examined with academics, scientists and chemical weapons experts. The New York Times was unable to visit Douma, but forensically analysed the visual evidence from Syrian activists and Russian reports. They collaborated with Forensic Architecture to reconstruct a three-dimensional model of the building, balcony and bomb, and analysed how damage to the bomb's casing related to the debris. According to their findings, key pieces of evidence indicated the bomb was not planted, but dropped from the air by a Syrian military helicopter, and the evidence supported the involvement of chlorine. The dent on the front of the bomb indicated it crashed nose down into the floor of the balcony and pierced the ceiling. The front of the casing showed corrosion similar to that which is caused when metal is exposed to chlorine and water. The grid pattern imprinted on the underside of the bomb matched the metal lattice in the rubble that was over the balcony. Twisted metal found in the rubble corresponded to rigging seen attached to similar weapons. Apparent frost covering the underside of the casing indicated the canister of chlorine was emptied quickly. According to The New York Times, since the Syrian military controlled the airspace over Douma, it would be "almost impossible" for the attack to have been staged by opposition fighters who do not have aircraft. The New York Times noted that remote access "cannot tell us everything", and environmental and tissue samples were also needed in chemical weapons investigations.
The investigations published soon after the fact by Bellingcat, the New York Times, and Forensic Architecture were later confirmed by an in-depth report by James Harkin and Lauren Feeney in The Intercept. After six months of examining the evidence, interviewing witnesses, and consulting with experts such as Higgins and Theodore Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harkin and Feeney concluded that Syrian Air Force helicopters dropped two chlorine canister bombs on Douma on 7 April 2018. Harkin noted that many chlorine attacks launched by Syrian forces in the past had resulted in no casualties, hypothesizing that—in contrast to the much more lethal sarin gas—Syrian forces likely employed chlorine at Douma to induce panic among the population rather than to kill many people. One of the canisters never released its payload and caused no deaths, but the other canister struck the weak roof of an apartment complex at an unexpected angle, releasing a very high concentration of chlorine that killed the people beneath it in a matter of minutes. According to Harkin, the frightened residents seen flocking to a nearby hospital and being doused with water in viral footage were not survivors of the chemical attack, but victims of conventional weapons and smoke inhalation.
A report released by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), a Berlin-based think tank, determined that chlorine attacks accounted for 91.5% of all confirmed chemical weapons attacks attributable to the Syrian government throughout the war, including the 7 April 2018 attack on Douma. The report held the Syrian government responsible for 98% of all recorded chemical weapons attacks over the course of the Syrian civil war and believes its use of chemical weapons "is best understood as part of its overall war strategy of collective punishment of populations in opposition-held areas".
Commenting on the OPCW FFM report of 2019, Bellingcat remarked that the detail provided, 'continues to make it clear that the Douma attack was yet another chlorine attack delivered by helicopter, using the same type of modified gas cylinders as seen in previous chlorine attacks.' On 23 January 2020, Bellingcat published a report in which it argued that it is effectively impossible for the Douma attack to have been a false flag incident.