Damascus, April 7 (SANA) The city of Douma woke on April 7, 2018, to a new humanitarian tragedy, as smoke mixed with a heavy silence, spreading through its narrow streets, carrying unprecedented fear. Toxic substances seeped through the area, adding a painful chapter to the suffering of civilians already facing repeated attacks.
While Civil Defense teams worked under dangerous conditions and ongoing airstrikes, they identified signs of an unusual incident after cases of mass suffocation were reported near Martyrs’ Square, confirming the use of internationally prohibited chemical materials.
Response challenges under bombardment
Head of operations at the Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate, Amer Zarifa, said in a statement to SANA’s correspondent that response teams faced major difficulties reaching the site due to repeated shelling accompanying the attack, hindering rescue and documentation efforts.
He added that teams managed to access the area after several attempts, providing medical aid to the injured and transferring them to medical points while continuing response operations in the following hours.
Zarifa noted that victim recovery and decontamination operations continued the next day under highly complex field conditions, with 43 victims documented by name and more than 500 injuries recorded due to inhalation of toxic substances.
He stressed that documenting the incident was challenging due to pressure on witnesses and survivors, but Civil Defense personnel were determined to record testimonies accurately to preserve victims’ rights and present the facts, emphasizing that such crimes do not expire with time and efforts continue to ensure accountability.
Testimony of a volunteer media worker
For his part, Bahaa Bashir al-Muallim, a Douma resident who volunteered with the Civil Defense as a media worker, said: “At that time, I volunteered in the media department, where my role was to deliver information to news agencies and document locations. To avoid harm to my family outside Douma, I published reports in foreign newspapers such as The New York Times under the pseudonym ‘Mansour Abu al-Khair’.”
Al-Muallim said that on February 18, 2018, a large-scale campaign began against Eastern Ghouta, aimed at displacing its residents, culminating on April 6 when Douma faced some of the heaviest attacks, targeting Civil Defense centers and hospitals.
He added that on April 7, chemical attacks were carried out by the deposed regime in stages. “The first incident was documented around 4:30 p.m., followed by a second, wider attack around 7 p.m. using a missile near the Grand Mosque, and finally the attack near Martyrs’ Square, which resulted in fatalities.”
He explained that residents had taken shelter in basements to escape bombardment, but chlorine gas spread downward, trapping them inside and causing deaths and injuries.
Evidence documentation and international findings
Al-Muallim said the number of martyrs reached 43, with hundreds injured, noting that he documented the site, the weapon used, and collected blood samples later submitted to rights organizations after traveling to Türkiye.
In this context, a report issued on January 27, 2023, by the Investigation and Identification Team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed direct responsibility for the chemical attack using chlorine gas, which killed 43 civilians, including 10 children and 15 women.
F.J./ABD
