Trump approves US military strikes in Syria

French report lays out the evidence: Assad forces conducted chemical attack on civilians

A report by France concludes the Assad regime was clearly behind the April 7 chemical attack on civilians in the Douma suburb of Damascus, the first detailed governmental assessment laying out the justification for the U.S.-led allied strikes on Syria.

"Beyond possible doubt, a chemical attack was carried out against civilians at Douma (and) there is no plausible scenario other than that of an attack by Syrian armed forces as part of a wider offensive in the Eastern Ghouta enclave," according to the report issued Saturday by the French government.

The report, based on technical analyses of witness accounts, photos and videos that appeared around the same time as a Syrian government offensive in Douma, was provided by the French embassy in Washington.

"After examining the videos and images of victims published online, (French intelligence services) were able to conclude with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority are recent and not fabricated," the report said.

"Having visited the site of the would-be chemical attack, Russian military experts did not find any traces of chlorine or any other toxic agent," according to a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a statement issued by the Kremlin. "Not a single local resident was able to confirm that a chemical attack had actually taken place."

French analysts examined photos taken in two locations that depicted the following symptoms consistent with a chemical attack:

Suffocation or breathing difficulties,
Mentions of a strong chlorine odor and presence of green smoke in the areas affected,
Extreme salivation and secretions from the mouth and nose
Cyanosis, or blue coloration of the skin due to poor oxygen flow.
Burns to the skin and cornea.
"No deaths from mechanical injuries were visible," the report said. "All of these symptoms are characteristic of a chemical weapons attack, particularly choking agents and organophosphorus agents or hydrocyanic acid."

Their findings were based on first-hand accounts of military helicopters releasing barrel bombs, evidence of features and markings of the bombs consistent with those Syrian forces used in previous attacks, and photos and videos of victims exhibiting the effects of chemical exposure such as foaming at the mouth, said the officials who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the U.N., said during the emergency meeting that a "significant body of evidence including intelligence" points to the Syrian regime as being behind the attack.

Echoing U.S. arguments, she pointed to reports that a helicopter deployed barrel bombs to deliver the chemical weapons on April 7.

"The opposition (rebel force) does not operate helicopters nor does it use barrel bombs," Pierce said. "No other groups (but the Assad regime) could have carried out this attack."

DreamingBeats said:
i'm more inclined to believe actual experts working directly with the evidence at hand instead of random people on the internet with zero credentials. but ok, maybe this is a lie as Russia claims, much like how they claim to not have meddled in US elections. maybe it's all a giant conspiracy by the US-France-British government. too bad i misplaced my tin foil hat. it must have been the British. they took my tin foil hat!
give back my tinfoil hat!

DreamingBeats said:
i'm more inclined to believe actual experts working directly with the evidence at hand instead of random people on the internet with zero credentials. but ok, maybe this is a lie as Russia claims, much like how they claim to not have meddled in US elections. maybe it's all a giant conspiracy by the US-France-British government. too bad i misplaced my tin foil hat. it must have been the British. they took my tin foil hat!
give back my tinfoil hat!

ultravigo said:
Do you even bother reading reports that you presented?Like i said there is no evidence whatsoever by these so called 'expert investigation team'.They're saying same thing like any random person in internet.Do you know Russia and US used their VETO power to stop the independent investigation of one another?What's up with you people when calling on your narrative you just label them as Russian trolls or conspiracy theory?Have you learned nothing from iraq,yemen or west involvement in politics of other countries?It's all about geo-politics not about because 'muh human rights'.If it was about war crimes than saudi arabia[they're literally committing genocide against Yemen people] would've been nuked long time ago.

Thrashinuva said:
At this point you have these possibilities:

Putin and Trump colluded to get Trump elected. Their friendship continued and Russia shot down American missiles for show, and defended Assad who had previously used chemical weapons in the past.

Putin and Trump colluded to get Trump elected. Their friendship ended quickly and Trump is pushing his luck while Putin is pretending the whole thing never happened and is looking for conflict.

There was no collusion. Russia dabbled in American politics to sow discord, and misstated that chemical weapons weren't used.

There was no collusion. Russia dabbled in American politics to sow discord, but is being entirely truthful about chemical weapons not being used.

ElPysCongroo said:
I'm sick of my government wasting my tax money on fucking missiles to blowup a country which is no way a threat to my own.