Vor vier Jahren: Giftgasangriffe auf die Ghoutas

Four years ago, thousands of people in the besieged rebel district of Damascus were rushed to hospital – after an air raid in the early hours – with symptoms such as convulsions, suffocation, coughing up blood and foaming at the mouth.

In the then two years since Syria’s civil war broke out, doctors had grown used to treating trauma and conflict wounds. But the overwhelmed medical staff didn’t know how to treat these patients with no visible signs of injury. Children dropped like flies in front of them because of what international investigators would later confirm were the effects of sarin gas, a chemical agent that targets the central nervous system. 

It’s still not known how many people died – estimates range from 281 to 1,729. All sides agree, however, that East Ghouta was one of the worst chemical incidents in modern history.

Images of entire families dead in their beds, with dark rings around their mouths and eyes and faces contorted in pain, caused outrage around the world. The Syrian regime had crossed a “red line”, the then US President Barack Obama had said. Military intervention was proposed in a bill that never actually made it to a floor vote in the House or Senate.  

Quelle: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ghouta-chemical-attack-syria-assad-anniversary-no-justice-for-survivors-a7903506.html