November 11, 2017
A careful reading of the latest OPCW reports on the Al-Lataminah and Khan Sheikhoun Sarin attacks reveals not only more details about those two incidents, but the earlier August 21st 2013 Damascus Sarin attacks, increasing the certainty that the Syrian government was responsible for those attacks, despite claims by some that rebel forces were responsible…
November 9, 2017
A new report from the OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) has established that Sarin was more than likely used as a chemical weapon in the town of Al-Lataminah on March 30th 2017, less than a week before the April 4th Khan Sheikhoun Sarin attack the OPCW-UN JIM recently reported was executed by Syrian government forces….
November 4, 2017
Although estimates vary to some extent, Syria is said to have been the home of close to two million Christians – accounting for around 8-10% of its pre-war population. Close to a dozen different denominations could be found in the country which many observers from outside generally considered to be very close to the Baathist…
October 27, 2017
The new report from the OPCW-UN’s Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) on chemical attacks in Syria, provided to the UN Security Council yesterday, and leaked earlier today, shows that, despite Russian and Syrian protests, there’s now clear evidence that Syria was responsible for the Khan Sheikhoun Sarin attack, and alternative versions of events presented by Russia…
October 26, 2017
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
As confirmed by open source evidence, OPCW and OHCHR findings, and witness statements, a Sarin attack took place on March 30, 2017 in Al-Lataminah, in addition to the widely-known April 4, 2017 Sarin attack in Khan Sheikhoun. Both of these attacks were executed by the Syrian Air Force. Furthermore, physical evidence filmed and photographed at…
October 18, 2017
Now that the so-called Islamic State (IS) is rapidly losing terrain in eastern Syria, a race is underway to capture the oil-rich Deir ez-Zor governorate. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and militias loyal to the Syrian government, under cover of the Russian airstrikes, rush towards the fields east of the Euphrates River; but so does…
October 9, 2017
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
The town of Al Lataminah in Hama has seen a large amount of military activity during the recent years of the Syrian conflict, including repeated allegations of the use of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, and more recently confirmation in an interview with the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons…
October 3, 2017
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
This article was collaboratively researched and written by the Bellingcat Investigation Team. Introduction In August 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first ever arrest warrant solely based on social media evidence. The arrest warrant accuses Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli (hereafter referred to as ‘Werfalli’), an alleged commander of the Al-Saiqa Brigade of the…
October 3, 2017
This post was originally by Bellingcat for Planet Stories. In late September, Russian media outlets reported that the Russian military built a bridge across the Euphrates River near the city of Deir ez-Zor in Syria. Specifically, RT reported on September 26 that Russian military personnel had managed to build the bridge in fewer than 48 hours, despite constant…
October 1, 2017
By Nick Waters
Strike One On 28 Sep 2017 the Russian Ministry of Defence released footage of an airstrike in Idlib province (MoD video 1). Titled “Elimination of concentration of insurgents in Idlib province” and lasting 11 seconds, it showed an airstrike on the entrance of what appeared to be a tunnel. It did not state on what…
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