Little Doubt: Experts Attest to Use of Nerve Gas in Syria.

Little Doubt: Experts Attest to Use of Nerve Gas in Syria. (Spiegel).By Markus Becker and Christoph Reuter

As of Wednesday, the death toll in Arbeen was 63. But if what the opposition is reporting turns out to be true, that is only a small sliver of the carnage: Up to 1,300 people were allegedly killed in a toxic gas attack by the Syrian army that day.

Shocking videos have been uploaded to YouTube. In them, children are seen to make up a large percentage of the dead. The videos have already had political consequences, as governments around the world reacted with horror. On Wednesday evening, the UN Security Council announced the need for "clarity" about the reported use of chemical weapons, but they didn't reach agreement about launching an investigation.
The Syrian government has rejected the allegations. But experts agree that the sheer number of photos, videos and eyewitness accounts leave little reasonable doubt that a chemical weapons attack took place.
The images out of Syria are "terrible" and "extremely distressing," said Alastair Hay of the University of Leeds. Though it's not possible from available footage to confirm exactly what chemical weapons were used, Hays said that the visible symptoms, such as nasal secretions, pronounced difficulty breathing and profuse sweating were consistent with organophosphoric exposure -- "and nerve agents are potent organophosphates."
Stefan Mogl, a chemical weapons expert with Spiez Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection, says that after viewing the videos he is left with little doubt: "The combination of symptoms indicates a nerve agent," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Pupil constriction was recognizable on one child, for instance, which is among the first symptoms of nerve gas poisoning, Mogl explains. Then, a certain sequence of symptoms is observable, he continues, "the way their muscles cramp up, first in various parts of the body, then eventually the entire body starts twitching -- that's a so-called tremor." Such a thing would be very difficult to simulate, Mogl says. What's more, many of the victims were children, making it even less likely the scenario could be faked. And the number of people affected by the attack also seems hard to explain by anything other than by the use of chemical weapons.
Witnesses told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the missiles began hitting a number of places northeast of Damascus around 3:45 a.m., with Harasta, Zamalka, Arbeen and smaller villages among them. The missiles were reportedly fired by twos, and one witness in Zamalka counted more than 20 hitting the city.
The cities of Muadhamija and Darayya, from which the army has been largely driven out, were reportedly among the hardest hit areas in the southwest. The attacks there are believed to have been launched around 5 a.m. from the army's 4th division posts.
The use of chemical weapons in the presence of the UN team also makes a mockery of the international community. Even so, Kahwaji doubts there will be a decisive response from the West. "The Syrian regime will remain immune to this as long as it is protected by the Russians on the UN Security Council," he says.
Furthermore, the UN inspectors have a weak mandate. "They are only allowed to visit locations chosen by the regime," Kahwaji told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "And they are merely determining whether chemical weapons have been used -- but not who deployed them."Read the full story here.