Warning

Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Misrata Brigades Accept the GNC

May 24, 2015
last updates May 30
 
Thanks to some comments by h at Refugees and Human Traficking, something new (as far as I know)

Libya Dawn revolutionaries show support for GNC

Libya Dawn Operation revolutionaries representing 23 cites issued on Wednesday a statement in Al-Zaweya to show support to the General National Congress as the sole legitimacy in Libya urging everyone to comply with its orders.
The statement indicated that all of the revolutionaries must be united all around Libya and that Libya Dawn partners are not allowed to declare neither war nor peace unilaterally. May 20 2015
 
4 Misrata Brigades confirm their support for dialogue, putting an end to the fighting. In Misrata, 236 revolutionary brigades are registered with the Misratan Union of Revolutionaries (MUR),7 accounting for almost 40,000fighters

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP12-After-the-Fall-Libya.pdf

This was preceded by European threats over the recent death voyages, coming from ports run by Libya Dawn. GNC officials had been complicit, out of greed and/or fear, but "when Italy and other major EU state leaders started talking about military action to destroy the smuggler boats before they could load up with illegal migrants," the GNC offered to patrol the coast with EU coordination, to stop the traffic. Italy, by far the biggest absorber of the influx, welcomed the move.

But... there was dissent:
Mufti Ghariani denounces Misrata brigades statement for peace and reconciliation
 
And this acceptance was issued at a time when, the Misratans may have had reason to know, they were about to claim the GNC betrayed their newfound friendship, and perhaps be forced to again be at odds with them. Within nine days, as Libya Herald reports on 29 May, "Libya’s largest airbase falls into IS hands as Misratans blame GNC" Did the GNC fold and retreat and let ISIS/Daesh take over? No, the Misratans did:
''Forces supporting the Islamic State (IS) have taken control of Gardabiya airbase in Sirte, Libya’s largest airbase, after Misrata’s 166 Brigade retreated last night from its remaining positions in the town ... [and IS] is reported to have taken control also of the Manmade River complex some 25 kilometres east of the town. It too had been in the hands of 166 Brigade.''
 
Misratans blame the GNC for this loss, by refusing to arm the Misratans adequately (in the few days they'd been cooperating?) and they blame ISIS for having too many weapons (or are they saying the GNC has armed them?) “We did not get any support from the GNC. We don’t have enough weapons, enough vehicles. The other side has everything,” a local official said. The commander of 166, Mohamed Ahusan, echoed that they had no choice, adding that this had been an issue and he had already threatened to just pull out if he didn't get the right support. So this is a conscious decision finally taken, just after they had feigned cooperation, and it might've been presaged with deception; the Herald report mentions conflicting "separate reports yesterday that although a different Misratan brigade had decided to pull out of Sirte because of the lack of backing from the GNC, 166 and a handful of others had agreed at a meeting with the council to stay on and fight IS." Might that be part of why reinforcements weren't sent? Was this a surprise withdrawal of 166 despite their promise to stay? How would that be the GNC's fault? Doesn't matter - they're on their own with the backstabbers and ISIS teaming up like this to spread their Islamo-nihilist zone. :''
Meanwhile the international community, notably the EU and the US, continues to insist that it will not help anyone in Libya fight IS until there is a government of national unity – a scenario that looks as remote now as when the UNSMIL dialogue process restarted four months ago in Geneva.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Syria: Ghouta Chemical Massacres (plural) {Masterlist}

May 26, 2015
(incomplete)
last edits August 27, 2017

Incident: Early hours of August 21, 2013: the simultaneous "chemical" death of x-hundred civilians in the suburbs of Damascus, east and west, by apparently varied and usually unclear "chemical" methods. Rebels blamed government-fired rockets, and buried all the dead in their own mass graves. 

The UN later found Sarin remains in dirt next to rockets that may be irrelevant to the basements these folks were gassed in. And they found seemingly token amounts of Sarin product in the blood of some rebel-supplied alleged survivors. Of the people who died from deadlier doses of whatever - x-hundred in number, widely-parroted as 1,429 - none were tested for what killed them. It's said this is because a "dead body can't tell you how the person died," and/or it was a hassle that wasn't necessary - but that's clearly not why the UN's investigators chose to rely on living, rebel-screened, alleged survivors to speak for the dead.  

One man who might've pulled through and be a credible witness to sample and interview apparently started waking up in the morgue - a located one in Kafr Batna shown above (later as it's being emptied). In the center here here is a blood-soaked bed sheet they wadded under his neck after rebels finished "Assad's" work with a cut to the throat. It was okay, they had stand-ins, and now they had another dead body that can't tell you who gassed him. And they didn't have to settle for 1,428 martyrs making their case for a military bailout.
The basement these folks were gassed in seems to be directly beneath the floor here (or maybe it is a bit behind here and below, whichever - it's the former tuberculosis hospital, rebels say - see first link below for a start at the full story).

(fuller/different intro perhaps forthcoming - I just need this post up now)

Existing posts here, in order of importance
* The Ghouta Massacre's Sarin Myth, Brightly Lit: Exploring Kafr Batna's... Rebel Gas Chambers?

* Visual Evidence that the Victims were Prisoners and Unflattering before-and-after images of those prisoners

* The Family Killed Ahead of Schedule (added 8-27-17): the only case where we see 8-9 victims where they allegedly died in the sarin attack - and they were murdered with weapons days earlier, started to decay, and then were dragged into place. This was done, apparently, to support the claim that victims died in their homes or walking at liberty on the streets. That claim needing lies to illustrate it would then seem untrue, and the options raised in the above post are highlighted.

* Was Phosphene used in the Ghouta Chemical Massacre? Adding a valid hypothesis that phosphine, for example (later found in rebel chemical stocks in Aleppo) might explain some or even most of the deaths

* Ghouta Massacres (plural) by District (lots of details here but broken up - will be 10 district sub-posts when done)
** Part 2: Jobar - One extra-interesting example

* (East Ghouta) Firing Directions {Masterlist} (added August, 2017): new research and findings, in progress, on where the alleged sarin rockets were fired from, based on looking at what they did, which is interesting in various other ways anyway. Seven verified and analyzed impacts, each one providing a fairly readable firing direction.

One example at right: best estimates are in the 40-50 degree range (relative to an impacted wall), yet one agency claimed a mere 8 degrees. That was the UN investigation, in a widely cited and unacknowledged error (see part 1). It's not a wall-relation or a site mix-up; they're clear which site, how it's the straight tube's orientation, as they were looking at it, and they give an absolute compass direction and clarify it in detail, giving the opposite angle as the one it was flying on. It was way wrong, but it pointed to an Assad missile base 10km (4.5 times the rocket's maximum flight distance) away. This clearly wrong (analysis?) was cited as proving that it had flown 4.5x its maximum distance from just that base (before it was accepted to be so badly out-of-range - that math took a bit longer for the people who actually did it). Further, they claim this was the only spot in east Ghouta that provided a readable firing direction, suggesting this could be a fit for all of them. And they claim to have found two impacts in Moadamiya, west Ghouta, that point north, exactly to the same missile base, roughly the same distance away. I'm not sure how wrong that is, but it confirms the other strange cluster of errors... 

This wrong angle to an impossible spot was hungrily consumed and defecated by the Western mainstream's corporate media presstitutes as coming from a credible and unbiased UN agency, "buried" in a report intent on not blaming anyone or pointing fingers, and so honestly implicating the Syrian government. This was back in Sept. 2013, as pressure was on to blame Assad, facts or no. Here it was no. 
* That well-summarized story, in long form with explanations: How UN-OPCW Falsely Fingered Syria for the Ghouta Attack

Other findings about the rockets and their firing location(s) are popping up as we progress.

* Ghouta Massacre Victims: Medical and Media Staffs Decimated? Killed in the line of duty, and/or with family, in Zamalka - strange clues of family-based targeting no wind can explain, clues we see in other sectors, but because of profession couched as an apocalyptic culling of the district's non-violent activists by Assad's chemical rockets.

* Death Toll and Estimates 
** Body Recycling: Shown strongly between certain body displays, so far. May mean little past helping to set a visual minimum body count. May mean more than that.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Houla Massacre (Syria) {Masterlist}

November 22, 2014
last edits May 21, 2017

Update May 2017: See Five Years of the Houla Massacre Lie

see also dedicated but small and inomplete blogsite: http://taldoutruth.blogspot.com/
This one seemed to deserve its own blog - maybe it didn't quite, but too late now. There's little need to cover it in detail on this site. The base research at A Closer Look On Syria is all linked there as well.

* Houla, May 25: the Turning Point in Syria? The original post here, first-impression commentary and earliest investigation updates to July, 2012. Until the 2017 update, little about this pivotal event was actually included on this main blog for my take on our work (and sometimes Petri's, and maybe someone else's in time).

Note: The Video Record - besides several known witnesses and much logic - supports a victorious rebel attack on Taldou's security posts on May 25. They seem to overrun four of them, and left the fifth one pinned down under attack for hours. See here: white posts, taken in the rebel offensive that day. Orange = contested. Signs say they took the  next two pushing south.
That would give opposition fighters and terrorist allies unprecedented access to the town that evening, and there was also an unprecedented massacre that was to the opposition's immense PR benefit.

Please now re-consider what was ever cited to blame the government and clash with the best-read video record. Mainly, it was the word of alleged witnesses like this.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Ghouta Massacre Victims: Medical and Media Staffs Decimated?

Killed in the Line of Duty, and/or With Family, in Zamalka
May 21, 2015

The following is mainly from The Weekly Report on Dignity Revolution's Martyrs 8/17-8/23 2013 by the Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria (opposition). And mainly, it's information provided to them by one "Murad Abu Bilal, Information Officer in Zamalka's Coordination Committee," who's also "one of the few survivors of the media team during the massacre." In fact he says he's the only survivor. If rebels had gassed people there, he'd likely know and be the first to say it - or maybe not. But the facts, or something, force him to blame the silly regime for an exceptionally harsh version of attack, compared to what most other activists allege.

His contribution was video-recorded in two sessions (all in Arabic)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjZplt5lzQ indoors interview
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxRrih_nZcA field interview at the medical point

Medical Point Destroyed and Entire Staff Killed
"Murad Abu Bilal" atop the medical point
"Murad Abu Bilal" gave his field interview (second video) in what he callled "Zamalka Al Balad - Al Mazra'a" (the farms? maybe east end of Zamalka?). Indicating a semi- destroyed building, he told them "here was the medical point of Zamalka." Much of the video is filmed from its roof. He says "on Wednesday 08.21.2013, at quarter to two in the morning (1:45 AM, or maybe meaning 2:15, or maybe 2:45 as most give the attack starting) we were helping people here." "We" presumably means "they," or "us in the opposition" - he's not medical staff himself. The number of patients was huge; he says "about 600 people had been moved to this medical point during the first half hour after the bombing" (which started at 1:15/45/2:15?).

He says at that time, with 600 patients gathered within a half hour, at 1:45 AM or whenever, "another missile fell on the same building where the "medical point" was, which led to the death of many patients and the whole medical staff." He explains:
"The top of the: "medical point " building was bombed heavily with chemical weapons, and it is this building that we were assisting the infected people to climb to the top of to inhale some fresh air, however, the second rocket that fell on the mentioned building claimed dozens of lives as well. There were more than 60 people on the top of that building, in addition to dozens of people who were standing on the stairs, and others were waiting in front of the medical point downstairs."
The report doesn't give a number or any identities for any deaths among this medical staff of unclear size, but "Abu Bilal" says they all died in one or another of these strikes.

Murad Abu Bilal, indoor interview
"Abu Bilal" follows, "There were hundreds of victims; from this exact building we took out 400 martyrs." That's the usual reported total death toll from the CW attack in all of Zamalka, always rounded - not anyone killed by missile attack. "The injured (affected) were about 12000, that is the whole population of the city," he further says. That's incredible - the most detailed list has about 10,000 total affected, and specifies 1,200 in Zamalka - he just added a zero, to a number that was likely crap to begin with.

Another activist the VDC cited in this report explained there were originally four medical points just in Zamalka, and this was presumably one of three shut down somehow by the attack, leaving just one operating. But if so, it's also the one that yielded the entire 400 dead reported in Zamalka, at least per "Abu Bilal." This makes it sound like three clinics were already down somehow before they could collect any dead, so that within 30 minutes this mass of 600 people were funneled here, at the 4th and final medical point ... only for 400 to die along with all the staff as this last clinic was bombed - twice - in both explosive and chemical manners. That's not just extra harsh, it's preposterous in several ways.

Paramedics Killed in Line of Duty, With Family
The information officer "Murad Abu Ali" also told the VDC: "Some paramedics were killed although they had put the masks, because the masks were overfilled with chemical and toxic gases, which led to their immediate death. The main reason for their death was the lack of their pre-knowledge on the use of masks." That's clearly some kind of professional lapse by people out doing rescue work.

An exact number isn't given, but the VDC tries to correlate records, and here gave three "names of some of the medical staff members in "Teir" medical point who were martyred in Zamalka while they were performing their duty helping the injured after the massacre." It's suggested there are more than these three. It's not clear if these are supposed to be the medical staff killed in shelling, but they're listed after paramedic talk, and are all "paramedic martyr," no doctors or nurses, etc.

1 -The paramedic martyr: Samer Saleh Naseef "Sroor", known as Abu Majed. http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/92418#.VVQaSDpFDcc photo, Arabic number = 22
2 - The paramedic martyr: Ghassan Naseef. http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/92617#.VVQafTpFDcd Nicknamed : Abo Slaiman
3 - The paramedic martyr: Sa'ed Dandash, died with his wife. http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/92444#.VVQavDpFDcc

Why two Naseefs? Were these brother paramedics killed while working together? And how did the third one manage to die alongside his wife? Were these 3 examples, the only ones given, even killed in the line of duty as advertised? Or were they hit at home, with their profession - if that's even true - being irrelevant? Was this really an issue of improper gas mask usage, or more like an issue of wrong religion, or other perceived expendability?

Media Activists all Killed in Line of Duty, and with Extended Family
Khaled al-Naddaf, VDC photo
Murad Abu Bilal continues:
The chemical attacks, on the first day of the massacre, claimed the lives of many media activists in Zamalka Coordination because they inhaled the chemical toxic gases. The day following the massacre, on 22-8-2013, the fighter jets, by two air raids, shelled the Coordination office itself. The office has also been shelled by "FozdiKa" that left it heavily damaged.
As for the media staff in Zamalka Coordination, they have all been martyred except for me as they went out to shoot and collect information about the chemical attack, but none of them came back. One of them is the martyr Khaled Naddaf, who was killed while he was reporting the massacre.
VDC was able after this to cite exactly one media activist among the many killed in these repeated attacks, that killed everyone but "Abu Bilal." It's the same one that he specified. No one mentions any others by name or number.
* Khaled Nasouh Omar Mosa Al-Naddaf, 92587 "He known as Abu Abdo. Member in Zamalka coordination" - same photo as used in report (inset), plus a video still, alive.
In fact, he's listed twice:
* Khaled Omar Mousa 99453 - Occupation Media Activist - Photographer - Zamalka coordination member
The first one mentions that, like the paramedics, Mr. Naddaf was "Martyred with His family." Were out in the field "reporting the massacre" with him at 2 am? Were they hunted down by the Sarin separately? Or maybe his media work was unrelated, and he was at home with them - with home maybe being a rebel basement by then, for unclear reasons.

It was apparently an extended portion of his family that fared poorly in this attack: maybe not all are his relatives, but VDC has 17 likely ones for 18 total, or probably 19 including his wife, who should have her father's name, which isn't clear yet. 18 Naddafs - all civilians, all from Zamalka - removing one double-listing here (Baraa Fayez, girl, photo, baby = Baraa, boy, age 2), the Sarin chose 11 adult males, 3 adult females, 1 boy, 2 girls. 5 people are from the same Omar Mousa al-Naddaf branch photographer Khaled was from (should be brothers and sisters, etc. but probably not his wife) 

Probably adding to that 17 is #92158 Suad Omar Mous (missing Naddaf, like Khaled's second entry) Adult - Female, unusually listed as from Kafr Batna - maybe because "The name Came From al-Sel hospital in Kafr Batna." One to add but then subtract is Maimounah Mousa" Babea'a " 92622  "Wife Of Mohammed Sobhi Abd al-Malek al-Nadaf And She Was Martyred With Him." She's also Badea'a Mahmoud Omar Musa al-Nadaf 101621 Wife Of Sobhi al-Nadaf. The husband must be Muhammad Sobhe Abd al-Malek al-Nadaf 92582 photo, elderly man. And one wife here at least gets named as Naddaf, which is unusual - maybe Khaled's wife is in there. Maybe it's Suad?

Anyway, as we're seeing with Ghouta Massacre(s) by District, this "Assad Sarin" seemingly works a lot like "Assad's Shabiha" when it comes to massacres. Noxious molecule or Alawite militia, it hardly seems to matter - they pick out certain  families and kill the hell out of those, while sparing others, and do it while rebels are in charge. Consider the "Shabiha" massacres of Houla (May, 2012) and al-Bayda (May, 2013). One can only wonder what got this photographer into such trouble with the rebels that they had to kill him and take out so many family members, like in those other cases.


Monday, May 11, 2015

Ghouta Massacres By District, Part 5: Ain Tarma

Ghouta Massacres (plural) By District
Part 5: Ain Tarma
May 2 (incomplete)
last updates May 11/12

Warning! Extra ugly images in this post

Background:
Just south of Zamalka, and larger than I first thought, Ain Tarma (different spellings) should have been hit by drift across its northeastern sector, besides two impacts just in the district itself. Early reports claim only 75 people died here. VDC records suggest about 40...

VDC report includes the account of a paramedic named Sakhr (probably not "Dr. Sakhr" with a "clinic" in Kafr Batna) He tells them
"At two o'clock after midnight, the regime's forces shelled the area with mortars, specifically the first parts of Qusour neighborhood in the Ein Tarma behind the cemetery. During this time, a gas with a rotten smell spread quickly resulting in symptoms such as nausea, shortness of breath and difficulty in vision that turned into a complete lack of vision. Some people fainted, became fully paralyzed and suffered a severe head ache. We hurried to help them; I helped nearly 370 person-to-several medical points including Hamourieh, Irbeen, Sakba and Kafarbatna and Douma. "
There is a cemetery in Ain Tarma where some victims are buried, per the opposition's records. The only evident cemetery in Ain Tarma - likely the same referred to by both - is here on Wikimapia. A comment there once said "Tunnel Entrances to bunkers and secret chemical weapons facilities." That was around the time of the attack - 4 months ago, on May 19, 2014 - this interesting but unsupported comment has since been removed.

"Behind the cemetery" probably refers to whatever direction he was relative to it. Just to the northwest of the cemetery (upwind) is a girls' primary school. 735 meters northeast of the cemetery is the famous impact spot of volcano rocket 197. Others were about the same distance due north. For what it's worth, a map, at right. This is using an image from Human Rights Watch that seems pretty accurate for impact spots. Al-Ziniya doesn't figure in widely - it was once labeled on Wikimapia as part of Hazeh, since incorporated into a large Ain Tarma. I'm going with the latter, so the cemetery is in the middle of Ain Tarma, not its edge.

As usual, we don't know where the hospitals/morgues are, nor where the victims were when they were poisoned. They tend to come from Jobar, or to have once been said to come from there... and Jobar did have tunnels and rebel CW facilities that might well matter here. But as part 2 explains, it had no rocket impacts and was completely upwind, so anyone from there would have to venture a ways downwind - like to Ain Tarma - in order to die from "Assad's" rocket attack.

Victim Records
Table, early count: 50-67 (unclear) Final Count:  75 people died here.

VDC: 25 victims from Ain Tarma - 20 from elsewhere with "martyrdom location" Ain Tarma = 45 accounted for, or 38-42 minus double-listings.

Double-listings, more than usual:
* 2-4 of them under Baladi, below.
* #92915 Muhammad Alloush, adult male, photo, no clinical signs visible - "Manger at the field hospital" "(he known as Iqab)" Then #93741 Mohammad Alosh Oqab AM, same photo, "Administrator of a medical point." Obvious implication: secondary poisoning - fatal, but not so bad as to leave any clear signs.

Consider: Raed al-Homsi Civilian Adult - Male Damascus Suburbs Ein Tarma 2013-08-21 Chemical and toxic gases. Possible relative, Emad Muhammad Khier Al-Houmsi Civilian Adult - Male Damascus Suburbs Ein Tarma 2013-08-21. Homsi means "from Homs" - it can be a real name, or a way of saying "we don't want to say their name, but they fled from Homs to Damascus, and we caught up with them here." Raed has a photo, at right. That was some swift cloud of Sarin vapor to get to him before he bled to death out the hole in his throat. Or, did they maybe get the cause of death wrong in this case, like they did with M-015 in Kafr Batna? (see part 7)
Is this the sound of scraping the bottom of a strangely empty barrel? Double-listings and shooting victims, just to get maybe 40-ish killed here?

"Buried in a cemetery in Ain Tarma Hodeidah" = 13 martyrs - 9 unidentified, 2 Baladi children and their father, and a guy named Zaibaq. Hodeidah = means nothing I can find in Syria, just a town in Yemen. This I later found should be Jadida (see Tari, below). Looking at the entries in Arabic, it gives   الجديدة  . That second letter is a J sound, not H (they look similar). Still, I cannot place it just yet. There's a distinct area with Jadida in the name, but east of Hamouriya, and the victims with this note have a tendency to be listed as from Ain Tarma.

Baladi: 8 victims named Baladi + mother = 9
* 93798 Mona Santiha Family Status married PHOTO (alive) - Area Jobar wife of Ali Albaladi Martyrdom location Damascus Suburbs: Ein Tarma
(Note: 5 Santihas killed, whole war - Mona was the first, more died all in later 2014 - all from Jobar.)

* 92311 Mohammad Ali Adnan al-Baladi AM photo
** Double-listed: 93797 Ali al-Baladi, same photo, from Jobar but Martyrdom location Damascus Suburbs: Ein Tarma, like wife Mona
* 92305 Yousef Mohammad Ali al-Baladi, boy, photo Mother's Name Mona Santeeha Area Ein Tarma
** Double? 93282 Yousif Al-Baladi  Adult - Male  Damascus Suburbs  Jobar 
** Triple? 92920 Yousif Al-Baladi  Adult male, from Jobar, died in Zamalka  
* 93308 Rida Mohammad Ali al-Baladi, boy (girl's name, usually), photo - from Jobar \\ Buried in a cemetery in Ain Tarma Hodeidah
** 101722 Reda al-Baladi  AM from Zamalka, died somewhere
* 92633 Mwafaq al-Baladi  Child - Male  from Jobar 
Actual total = 5-7 Or...

Rida and Yousef are supposed to be brothers, even though Rida is a girl's name - they both have adult versions. One was corrected from Jobar to local, one not. And they look exactly the same, more-or-less. I don't suppose this is in fact one child before and after poisoning, (playing dead first time?) but apparently identical twins? Brother and sister, or what? Not sure.

Rida from Jobar, left, Yousef not from Jobar, right.
Noting the gender and hairstyle ambiguities of the above case, it's perhaps interesting another victim passed through Ain Tarma is a short-haired girl Riham Muhannad Tieba who died in Ain Tarma but came from Mleha (shown dead at right, also shown alive on the page). That's a district with no other victims listed coming from. It's southeast, across the Ain Tarma valley and next to Christian-majority Jaramana.

Is this this middling-length hair thing a cultural clue to the victims? Perhaps not. Note it's about the same between these 2-3 children - long for a boy, short for a girl. In Riham's case, shorter than she used to wear it. However long it takes to grow this long, it's worth wondering if they all maybe had their heads shaved at the same time, that span prior to the poison gas massacre.
 
Hazroumeh: 19 with this name listed for the whole massacre, minus 4 double-listings = 15.
These have some members with the cemetery note, but overall the Jobar connections seemed better, so they're covered in part 2.

al-Tari: VDC records 6 martyrs named Tari, 3 women, 2 men, one boy, all from Zamalka. They also list one martyr named Tary, which is the same name ( Ø§Ù„طري ) I'd render al-Tari, so it's 7. The last is another adult male named Adnan al-Tary, victim #93059, from Salhia (SW of Damascus), not Zamalka. But he must've been in town with family in order to be gassed there with them. He's the only one of these 7 with the note "Buried in a cemetery in Ain Tarma Hodeidah." And he's the only one (?) with a photo, showing no particular signs (right). The same photo appears in miniature in a graphic by Hisham Ashkar, posted here - he's one of several fighting-age men lined up dead in a morgue in Hamouriya, all of them (18 of them anyway) identified by name and small photo (note: other bodies of women and children lay nearby, so the degree of gender-specificity of this "sarin" isn't totally clear - it may have a thing for fit men aged close to 30, one possible teenager). There it says "Adnan al-Tary (92) from Zamalka, the son of Ali al-Tary, and he was buried in the cemetery of Ain Tarma al-Jadida" (rendered better). Otherwise the records suggest these were mainly from and died in Zamalka, and were among those buried in mass graves in Hamouriya. This one stands out from the other al-Taris and the other Hamouriya men. 
 
Where does he fit in with the others? Adnan may be related to Ayman al-Tari, who died with what sounds like an adult son and adult daughter (middle name Ayman). And he's even more likely related to three children with the middle name Adnan - Ammar Adnan Tari (photo at right), Esraa Adnan Tari (photo) and Sara Adnan Tari (no photo). All are from Zamalka, and that's why they all died. Unless they were from Salhia, and somehow stuffed in a Zamalka-area basement as Obama's "red line" offer turned one-year-old and someone claiming to be "Assad" crossed that line with hundreds massacred in a variety of "chemical"-seeming ways...

At least one al-Tari family mother probably appears in these records, likely both, but under "maiden" (father's) names as usual, so it's unclear at the moment.

Clinical Signs
A distinct set is seen with those - especially those no one could identify - that were "Buried in a cemetery in Ain Tarma Hodeidah" - which I finally realized (see just above) should be Jadida. Still don't know where that is, aside from the cemetery the attack happened near as discussed up top. Anyway, I'll call this the "Ain Tarma Cemetery" sign set. This is where the
WARNING
comes in.

Red faces: coulde be chemical burn/irritation, combined with livor mortis (reddened areas after death and blood settles). The left-halves of many faces are redder, suggesting livor mortis for the asymmetry - heads turned to the left, some time ago. A more direct clue is the massively plugged noses and ooze from the mouth, in most cases mixed with blood to some degree (orange to full red), something you don't usually see in the other cases (in Moadamiyeh, it's usually just mucous or just blood, depending, but the faces there are also unusually red). The amount of exuded material here is unusually high, and icky.

One explanation for the Ain Tarma cemetery signs might be: concentrated chlorine blast to the face, causing irritation, burning along seems and small cuts, causing intense choking and mucous secretion. And perhaps before they did this, the dehydrated the people - cut them off from water for a couple of days - so they had no hope of clearing their airways. Unidentified man #92307 apparently tried his hardest, rupturing his face and all the blood vessels in his eyes, trying to cough himself clear.
Unidentified 92299 AF, Ein Tarma (unlike some, face wiped clean)
92300 Tarek al-Zaibaq, AM Ein Tarma
(major Cyanosis, possible smoke, but not enough time in it to stain nostrils)

92301 Unidentified CM, Ein Tarma

92302 Unidentified CM, Ein Tarma

92303 Unidentified CF, Ein Tarma

92307 Unidentified AM, Ein Tarma
 

82311 Mohammad Ali Adnan al-Baladi
(note: besides cyanosis, at this angle, he may have a light coat of smoke residue - but again nostrils not stained by it)

92316 Unidentified CM, Ein Tarma

92314 Unidentified AM, Ein Tarma

92314 Unidentified AM, Ein Tarma (entry has two photos of different men)

92315, unidentified
 
92312, unidentified
 

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Ghouta Masacres by District, part 6: Hazza

Ghouta Massacres (plural) by District
Part 6: Hazza
May 10, 2015
(incomplete)

Background:
Fairly little is said about this smaller, less-populous district next to Ain Tarma, in relation to the August 21 incident or in the records of those killed in the whole war (182 martyrs listed as from Hazza , 2 so far this year, 14 in the Ghouta incident) It was not hit with any of the alleged Sarin rockets, but some came near to its boundaries (as understood, and shifting) It would be the most affected by any Sarin that drifted, by the best guess as to actual wind direction at the moment. If the wind blew east or E-SE like records suggest, much or most of Hazzeh should likely be covered.

So unlike Jobar, for example, martyrdom location: Hazza might make sense, depending on the actual science of the alleged Sarin stormfront ...
 
Victim Records
Table tallies: Early count of at least 50 dead (unclear, 50-67) final count = zero maybe rounded down, or just ignored - not mentioned.
 
VDC's records specify 14 martyrs of the Ghouta massacres were from "Hazza." all civilian - 6 men, 3 women, 4 girls, 1 boy. Clear names of interest: Laham, Tayer, Arhim. None of those are specified as dying there. 5 entries - most of the Arhims and Lahams - say (suggest) they were over in Zamalka for some reason when they died. The rest say "Damascus Suburbs: East Ghota" or have the space left blank.
 
Laham = 56 killed in the whole war, 15 in this incident: 8 men, 4 boys, 2 women (one an adult daughter) and one young girl. 13 are listed as from Zamalka:
 
* Family of Issam al-Laham = 6 (all from Zamalka): Amera (wife of Issam Al-Laham) AF "Wife of Issam Al-Laham Hwe full name couldn't be identified Martyred with her family" - Son of Amera (wife of Issam Al-Laham) 1 - Son... 2 - son ... 3 - son ... 4 (all Child - Male) - Masarra Issam Laham AF (adult daughter of Issam)
* other Zamalka = 7: Muhammad Hasan Al-Laham "al-Akhras" AM(Hasan placement suggests he's a son of Hasan Al-Laham) (photos, alive: serious, clean-shaven, militant?) - Son of Hassan al-Laham AM Zamalka (suggested: brother of Muhammad) - Salah al-Laham AM - Abo Salah Laham (Salah's father?) - Ibrahim Moafak al-Laham AM - Kasem al-Laham AM - Ahmad Al-laham AM Z
We've established that Zamalka can just mean "you know, the accepted place where rockets actually landed," when previously they might've said another area, and even that mightn't've been true. So the Hazzah link with the final two is worth noting, as well as the fact that these families were likely targeted in multiple areas.
 
  • Fahed al-Laham 93234 Civilian Adult - Male Damascus Suburbs Hazza. "Married with a Child" and maybe two: "known as Abu Ahmad" (father of Ahmad) and died with Maria. Died in Zamalka. 3 photos - 2 alive, one with new beard - one dead with beard, mucous.
  • Maria Fahed al-Laham 92057 Child - Female Damascus Suburbs Hazza (name says her father is named Fahed). Died in Zamalka, it says. Photo, alive, distorted (stretched back out at right)
Note: Dad Fahed Laham was previously "Unidentified" from Douma - by looks, a likely rebel fighter. That makes no-ID entry 92239 a double-listing.

Name implications for Laham: not totally clear, but interesting. There's Gregory III (Laham) Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem, spiritual leader of the Melkite church - born in Syria, 1933 as Lufti Laham. I've seen around that the nun Mother Agnes of the mixed reliability is named (Fadia?) al-Laham, born in Lebanon. Maybe most famous for us is Mimi Al-Laham, pseudonym for Maram Susli, "Syrian Girl." Adopted from where and why unknown. There's famed Syrian comedian Duraid Laham, who's Ismaeli. And there's the speaker of the People’s Assembly, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, elected 2012, Baath party, sect unclear. The presence of a Maria suggests these might be of the Christian type? (name commnality: 9 Marias recorded killed in the whole war )

Arhim = 4 killed in the whole war, all in this incident. These are Amira Arhim and her son Mohammed and daughters Massarah and Sondous, all listed as children. This almost has to be the same family already listed as one of the Arhims (but from Hazza, not Zamalka), Issam al-Laham must be the husband of Amira Arhim, and his wife was given as "Amera (wife of Issam Al-Laham). Mohammed should be one of the 4 unnamed sons, Massarah must be Masarra Issam Laham (adult) and Sondous just not mentioned. So total between Arhim and Issam Laham = 7, from Hazza.

Tayer = 5 in this attack, one a month before, none before or since. Those killed 2013-08-21 by Chemical and toxic gases. By name these should all be adult siblings, but maybe one is a wife:
* Shadi Ibrahim al-Tayer  Civilian  Child - Female  Hazza 
* GHayeth Ibrahim al-Tayer  Civilian  Adult - Male  Hazza   
* Serag Ibrahim al-Tayer  Civilian  Adult - Male  Hazza
* Malak Ibrahim al-Tayer  Civilian  Adult - Female  Hazza 

The other one: Ahmad Omar al-Tayer  Civilian  Adult - Male  Damascus Suburbs  Erbeen  2013-07-23  Shelling. Notes say "Martyred due to shelling on his car" and it happened in Douma.  

Clinical Signs
92355 Monira Ahmad Badran, photo, no signs
 
Fahed Laham: rather white and foamy mucous

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Ghouta Massacres by District, Part 3: Irbeen

Ghouta Massacres (plural) by District
Part 3: Irbeen
May 6, 2015
(incomplete)
last edits November 13, 2015 (strangulation signs)

Background:
Attack Claimed, But Unlikely
Like Jobar (see part 2) Irbeen can have no rocket impacts, but wind directions varying, it's not impossible some would drift over it southern edge. Most likely there would be no Sarin in its streets or homes, by the accepted story.
But Reuters reporter Khaled Oweis reported August 21 the attack was on "Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar" and later adjusted it to "Irbin, Ain Tarma and Jobar" (Aug. 26 report). NBC News made a video from there a week later described Irbeen as a district "where the people will tell you poison gas seeped through the streets one week ago."

Early tallies of bodies counted there, and generally listed as locals, ranged from 51 to 63, with an unusual breakdown into men, women, children. (23-30 children, 16-17 women, 11-17 men). It's said early reports of an attack in Irbin were confused references to victims brought and counted there. This might be so, or maybe people were poisoned there anyway because the rockets had nothing to do with it.
Either way, Irbeen's rebel facilities turned over a good number of victims and seems to have the biggest hand in media management of the massacre, via its Local Coordinating Committee and the rebel "Legal office of the city of Irbeen." The logo for that is at right, being the same or similar to the stamp generally seen on videos produced there. 
Below, the main Irbeen victim spread, one row of children has at least 12 of them, maybe 13, the other about the same, for 24-27 or so. The green gas tank (app. warning label plus color and size says 44 liter type) must be oxygen someone tried but failed to save all these people with? Why do rebel doctors always fail so badly, no matter how well their sponsors equip them?

Expanding on that: there's a brown tank, I think, and two large blue barrels (see views at right).

A week later NBC News filmed here and it's said to be the basement of the clinic where they tried to save people upstairs. At that time, there's two green tanks and maybe one or both barrels, but pushed back, almost out of view. Note also the piled luggage on the left, as seen on the 21st at right, slowly being moved a week later (below), and see also here.


Notes on gas tanks or cylinders: a Bing image search suggests oxygen ones tend to be blue, specifically sky blue, as seems natural.

This picture suggests someone thinks light blue = O2 and green means either helium (no medical use likely to be relevant here) or hydrogen (H2 - no medical use, just industrial,) But they can be re-filled with other things anyway, depending on the technical details - even if that color-coding info is correct) Not sure what a brown cylinder is supposed to hold.

Victims Records
Table, Early total: 51 Final total: 63 (apparently meaning people who died here, not necessarily people from, though this is not totally clear) Breakdown: 17 women, 23 children, 11 men at first. Later 16 women, 30 children, 17 men.

VDC:
- from Irbeen = 13 (all civilan, 8 women, 2 men, 2 unidentified girls and a boy)
 - died in = 0 (specified/reported/admitted)
- Irbeen in notes = 3 from elsewhere, "rescued to" or "buried in"
= 16 total? Others like the Gheras not noted.

All Children Unidentified?

The UK Daily Mail ran a horrible story from a medic, apparently in Irbeen, with 20 unidentified children, "because their entire families were wiped out by poison gas," and then someone who had no idea who they were brought all of them to this place. That sounds a little strange. They use scenes from an ITV video where unidentified infant girl, #14, is held up for dramatic effect (VDC record victim 94048, unidentified, different photo but seems to be the same baby, jaundiced). But the Mail article also include a table of photos of 15 children were recorded dead there an unidentified, by which the infant is actually #11.  Top row, reading right to left, we have Eastern Arabic numbers for 1-5. Next row, from the right is 6, then 8 (7 is skipped here) then 9, 10 (that's baby Mohammad Fayad Abdul Ghafar from Erbeen, #94004 per VDC) then 14 (one of only two Irbeen kids they list as still unidentified - the other is 94548, added exactly 500 entries later) Bottom row, maybe 16 then 17, next is clearly 18 and 20, then unreadable, but higher than 20, presumably. Suggested: more than 20 unidentified children at the Irbin collection center (94548's VDC photo does not appear here, but she could be the one in the bottom middle photo)
(note: a better view in the NBC News video shows that's 1 and 4, I just couldn't tell )
The initial reports for Irbeen gave a breakdown including 23 children, or 30 by later reports. Were just 21 of these 23-30 once unknown, or was it a total problem there? Did they come in with their dead unidentified families? Why were there so few survivors to explain who the rest were? Why did no extended family or neighbors who knew them bring in anyone? All just strangers finding strangers? Or just mostly that?

Or was "unidentified" just a crap story for drama? Or a crap story with another purpose as well, regarding the true identities they didn't want to publish?

Note: VDC lists only two unidentified Irbeen children, both girls - but it only lists 3 Irbeen children total.
Note: a larger image spread, with the 15-children table in the middle and adults shown above and below, was seen on video less clearly - see still here - with adults included, I found VDC record matches all in the #94000-94004 range, and 94048 for the infant girl, so far. All but the last that I've matched so far have names just fine, per VDC, and are listed as from Irbeen, but with no additional details past the photo that matches. By inclusion with the unidentified babies, put around on fliers as if seeking identification, we can say some of these if not all were handled in Irbeen. So did these locals just go somewhere else to die, and then get sent back, where they were identified but also with a show of not being able to identify them? This all makes fairly little sense, doesn't it?
Ghera/Ghorra Family:
To counter the issues raised above, there is exactly one family unit with identified children, survivors, etc, and a clear story of death elsewhere, that tries to rescue this whole sorry mess. Let's give this Ghorra/Ghera family some consideration.
Hisham Ashkar passed on this activist-provided ID via the alleged grandfather, seen in photos like the one at right, in his article "the distance between the images and the victims" (translation to English April 22, 2014 from an Arabic original done last fall) Showing the photo at right, Ashkar explained the girl was named "Fatima Ghorra, three years old," and the girl in yellow next to her is sister Hiba, age 4. That might not be correct, but... The man holding Fatima is "their maternal grandfather, Abu Hamza al-Sheikh," he heard. "Their father is Nabil Ghorra, a medical doctor," of course married to a woman "from al-Sheikh family." They had six kids: these two, brother Mohammed, age 12, and 3 older sisters Danya, age 9, Rama, 15, and  Battoul, 16. According to Ashkar, they lived in Zamalka, and were home-schooled after regime teachers started threatening the kids at school with guns. Fatima reportedly told her grandfather, as he says on video and passed on here:
"This girl. she said, “Dad,” before … she put the food for her. This girl. She told me before: “Dad,” today is not my turn to eat its the turn of my siblings. From the siege, from the bread, and the food, and the hunger..."
...which causes Mr. Sheikh to forget if he's supposed to be their father or grandfather?  There was really no lack of food that acute - the story is patent propaganda, even if the word for "dad" might translate "grandpa" as well. Ater the attack, Ashkar writes, "the ghorra family was dispersed. Abu Hamza al-Sheikh arrived with Fatima and Hiba to the field hospital in Erbine. Fatima and Hiba died, as well as their sisters Rama and Dania. Their father, Nabil, was at first listed among the victims, but was later found in another field hospital, receiving medical treatment. Their brother, Muhammad, was still missing at the time of the interview." Battoul isn't mentioned. But dad was alive, he heard, and Mohammed just unclear, "still missing at the time of the interview" - maybe still alive out there. It's a story packed with drama.

The VDC's records partly bear this out, but also challenge it. 8 victim entries, all but the father specified as from Zamalka:
* 93038 Nabel Ghera Adult Male, Married and has children. No other notes.
* 94005 Salima Mohammad Salim al-Sheikh AF, Zamalka. Notes: Buried in Erbeen
* 93014 Mohammad Nabel Gharra Child-male age 12
* 93041 Betoul Nabel Gera girl, 16
* 93040 Rama Nabel Ghera girl, 15
* 93044 Danya Nabil Ghera girl, age 9
* 93049 Heba Nabel Ghera girl, 4
* 93042 Fatema Nabel Ghera girl age 2

The father is listed as dead, not revised. Mohammed is listed as dead, not missing. The story of scattered members getting tallied in different areas is contradicted by the entry numbers here: the mother was added much later, for whatever reason. And Mohammed was the first confirmed dead, 93014. The other seven all come within 11 entry numbers of each other, 93038 to 93049.

Mohammed is one of the better guesses as to the boy of about 13/13 with a horrible nosebleed, but seen in better shape before that next to Fatima (girl in purple, would be his sister) - see below under "Signs that Get Worse with Treatment?"

Ashkar heard "The Ghorra girls were buried in a mass grave in the town of Saqba." The VDC reports their mother was buried in Irbeen. No one says where the older girls were buried. Saudi Arabia, some time later, seems possible.
Irbeen Links to Other Groupings:
* There's a Mazen Sheikh from Zamalka who died, photo, looks tough if not militant, in his 30s, could be a brother of Salima Sheihk of the Ghera family, but it's a common name. entry #92003, he was one of the very first victims tallied anywhere, by the Douma-based VDC (91977 is the first one, in Moadamiyeh. Mazen is the 4th from Zamalka - after 2 rebel fighters, he's the second civilian listed - see full database list, he's about 30 names down on page ).
* 92151 Fawzeh al-Boush Adult Female age 65, from Erbeen, died in Zamalka (another Boush woman was married into the Ghazi family covered in part 7, Kaf Batna) 
* Nour Atiq links to Ahmad-Atiq and other Ahmad-related names, who wound up all over but since that includes Moadamiyeh, see part 1. 
* Baraa Hazroumah, girl, from Jobar, died in Ein Tarma, "rescued to Erbeen" (see Jobar for the rest of her realtives who died wherever)
* Unidentified woman from Jobar seen there? VDC martyr #94546 comes with the photo below. She's listed beside an older woman and a teenage boy all unidentified but from Jobar, processing area not clear. But a roughly woman-sized body is laid alongside the smaller children here, wrapped in a Spider Man blanket. Consider: She's dressed properly for a grown woman in a "liberated" area, but looks possibly teen-aged. Irbeen's total for women changed from 17 to 16 at some point. That may be the judgment call there.


Clinical Signs
Signs that Get Worse with Treatment?
See photo comparison here at ACLOS. A boy seen alive but in bad shape in the hospital in an Irbeen video, compared to one seen dead with blood pouring out his nose, unlike before. I noted the facial similarity, but then had doubts, and considered the victim pool far too big to make such a match.
 But coming back to it now, I think it's either a match, or good enough reason to risk calling it. The horrible right (after?) photo was published, I notice now, by Irbin News. They used  a few Zamalka general shots to show the rockets, dead animals, and a truly massive victim display from there. Otherwise it seems they use their own local images. So these two boys should be in the same pool of 23-30 children, and being so similar in that context, are most likely the same. They appear the same age (13-ish?), same basic face shape, seemingly different skin tone but that's never clear. Nose shape looks bigger on the right, but may be an angle thing. My prior doubts: the line over his nose: from the oxygen mask, would fade or wash off later, no problem. "eye shadows might have a different shape" (not much different if so), "lip proportions top vs. bottom may not match" (but may - the different photo angles could explain that). But that's not clear enough to say no, and hair type (actually looks a bit different, but simple ruffling can do that), basic face shape, long lashes, prominent front tooth (left of center), puffed lips, shaded eyes, and especially those eyebrows, all are really similar." And both are among the very few showing this kid of redness of / bleeding from the nostrils.

If these photos show the same kid, the problem should be clear. After he was getting medical care from rebels, something marked up his face with little wounds as if from flying micro-debris, caused splotchy burns, and aggravated that nose irritation into totally failed tissue releasing a torrent of blood, or maybe the flying particles helped cause that too. Flying particles marking up victim's faces, lower half. What the hell in the rebel story could cause this? There are other cases - one below, others seen in Kafr Batna's morgue, at least.

Later, I found another picture of what may be the same boy, maybe earlier than the other pictures, and with a tube up his right nostril. The orange circles indicate a mole or freckle in the same spot in all 3 images.

Boy ID: none yet, but from laying next to Fatema Ghera and appearing about 12, the best guess is Mohammed Nabil Ghera, by some sources listed as missing and not confirmed dead. But there's another boy of about 12 and if he looks more like the girls, then we can guess this kid is not Mohammed. Sources otherwise give almost no ages with victims to get a next guess. This boy does not clearly appear to be in the clinic basement morgue scene with the Ghera girls, nor in the courtyard or on unidentified posters. As noted above, rebels claim Mohammed Ghera is missing and not even confirmed dead - this might be consistent with nosebleed boy.

Note, Nov. 13: A while back, ACLOS member Pmr9 brought up an interesting point about the aditional little marks on this boy's face. Those seemed mysterious to me. He speculated these could be "petechial hemorrhages," caused by, for one thing, strangulation. Nosebeleeds are also a consistent signs, especially with prior nose irritation I suppose. So it seems likely it wasn't any chemical that killed this kid in the end, but some Islamist's bare hands, squeezing tight. Note in the death view his neck can't be seen, or else maybe it would have already been obvious that he was strangled.  (see here)

Morgue Photos
Photo published by Legal Office of Irbeen, provided with no victim ID (can't say "unidentified" for sure, maybe they just didn't share it there) Note burns in certain spots, likely prior injuries. Mucous like tree sap. This is similar treatment to the Ain Tarma cemetery set of clinical signs (see part 5) But here we see little wounds, as if from flying debris, like we see with the boy above. And that may have happened after he was brought to the rebel clinic here.



Mohammad Fayad Abdul Ghafar (center) has a mark on his nose, and an older boy to the right has marks across the bridge of his nose.(these do not look as much like strangulation hemmorages as with the boy discussed above)


VDC entry 94002 girl Yaman al-Basal, from Erbeen. Similar: fully plugged nostrils, reddened skin The right-half effect is likely from livor mortis, natural to death in general, but the lips at least also seem injured - chemically, not that we can see with little nicks like the above.

morgue close-up -  child on left, no clear signs - on right, cyanotic (blue)

Ghera girls (reportedly Fatema, l Heba, r)
sunken/shadowed eyes, otherwise not much I notice. The dark spot on the left-hand girl is most likely a birthmark, not a wound like we briefly thought from less-clear views.

not sure ... mucous bubble, supposed to prove Sarin



94003 Basima Othman, burns or abrasions, mucous

94048, unidentified infant #11/14 (see above), often held-up. She's evidently yellow, probably jaundiced, but probably not fatally.

94548 the VDC's second and last unidentified girl "from" Irbeen, 500 entries after the above. Dark rings around eyes, slight cyanosis in lips?