A former US secretary of state famously blamed Moscow for being ‘ultimately responsible’ for every chemical incident in Syria, after reports of a chorine attack in Ghouta in January. The incident, it now turns out, never happened.
The reports about an alleged chlorine gas attack that, supposedly, affected more than 20 civilians on January 22, were dismissed by the medical specialists of the Red Crescent, who worked in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta for many years. The doctors said they found no traces of the use of any chemical agent at that time.
“At some point, our [hospital] received six people, who were allegedly suffering from respiratory problems. Following a medical examination, we did not find any problems at all, any traces of chemical agents,”Seif Aldin Hobia, a member of the Red Crescent, who worked for the last seven years at the central hospital of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, told journalists. Recalling the events that took place in January, he said “we had no evidence of chemical agents being used [in the area].”
His words were echoed by another medical specialist of the Red Crescent, Muhammad Adnan Tabazhu, who said that the medics obtained no evidence of chemical weapons being used in Eastern Ghouta between 2012 and 2018, when he was working in the area.
Back in January, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson famously claimed that “more than 20 civilians, mostly children, were victims of an apparent chlorine gas attack,” adding that the incident…