Russian military inspect suspected chemical weapons workshop in Aleppo
Is the situation with the chemical attack in Syria's Idlib gradually clearing up?
It's not certain, even though the UN demanded those responsibles for the use of chemical weapons should be found.
"Every time we have a moment in which the international community is capable of being together, there is someone, somehow that tries to undermine that feeling of hope by producing a feeling of horror and outrage," UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said. "But we are not going to give up. On the contrary, we make use of all these horror moments to show they cannot prevail."
However, despite the campaign to put the blame on Bashar el-Assad, many experts say that his troops could not conduct such an attack. At least not on purpose.
Contrary to Western assumption, Russia says that it was either terrorists or the Syrian opposition who could use chemical weapons.
Nevertheless, Western mainstream media keeps trumpeting that it was Assad's troops that used chemical weapons in Idlib. Which is hard to believe when one knows that it is Russian headquarters that supervise all combat actions in the region. Assad is not able to use any aircraft unless the Russian command in Hmeymim gives permission for this. Therefore, some might say that it was the Russians, who used chemical weapons, but those who say this need to have their heads examined immediately. Concerning the turnover of WMDs, there are authoritative international agreements that only WWIII can break.
In the meantime, a Russian journalist based in Syria, gave a the following assessment to the situation: "I was on the outskirts of Hama when government troops repulsed Islamists' attack and went on an offensive to Idlib. Khan Sheikhun has blocked the road from Damascus to Aleppo, the main highway in the country, a road of strategic importance. There are no tactical or informational reasons for Syrian government troops to use gas. The offensive continues. It is hard to imagine why Assad would want to set himself up like that.
So far, all confirmed facts of the use of chemical warfare agents are associated with the actions of the opposition only. The Syrian government delivered all of its chemical weapons to the international commission two years ago - 1.300 tonnes of sarin nerve gas and its precursors. There were many incidents, when traces of chemical substances would be found on territories liberated from terrorists."
This version sounds truthful. The information about the attack on terrorists' positions was officially confirmed. It was reported that government forces carried out an air strike on the outskirts of the settlement of Khan-Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, where terrorists' ammo depot and military equipment was located. On the territory of the warehouse, there were shops for the production of landmines filled with poisonous substances. Chemical weapons would then be delivered to Iraq. One may assume that explosions in the warehouse led to the leak of toxic substances and numerous victims.
One must keep in mind that it was the White Helmets (Blog 19/10/16) and the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces of Syria (NCRC) that announced that it was Syrian government troops that conducted the attack with the use of chemical weapons, in which 80 people were killed and 200 were wounded. The UN supported their point of view, but there is no concrete proof and neither sources mentioned above are rally reliable.
Furthermore, chemical weapons have been a recurring footnote in the bloody narrative of Syria's civil war.
Uri Avnery: CUI BONO? - Gush Shalom
Abby Martin in 2013, on Syria
Abby Martin in 2013, on Syria
E em 2016
In 2016, Russia's Defence Ministry reported on the use of chemical weapons by anti-government forces against civilians and Syrian soldiers in Aleppo's 1070 district. In vain.
2013
 |
| John Singer painting, 1918, Gassed |
The one used in Syria is the chlorine.
Chlorine, the 17th element in the periodic table, is an industrially important chemical. Among other applications it is used in the dying industry and forms the basis for many household bleaches. But chlorine is perhaps most well known as an addition to swimming pools where, in small quantities, it reacts with the water to form hypochlorous acid that kills bacteria and prevents the growth of algae, resulting in safe, sanitary conditions for swimming.
Kelsey Davenport, the director nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, a non-profit organisation that promotes public understanding of arms control policies in Washington, DC, spoke about the problematic nature of containing chlorine as a chemical weapon: "Chlorine is particularly a problem because it has so many uses for industrial purposes that don't have anything to do with weaponisation. It can be very easy for organisations to get their hands on chlorine and the necessary ingredients to create chlorine gas, using sort of other mechanisms or justifications for industrial purposes. That makes it much more difficult to control and much more difficult to prevent groups from using."
Chlorine is a choking agent. Its greenish-yellow clouds of gas cause shortness of breath, wheezing, respiratory failure, irritation in the eyes, vomiting, and sometimes death.
Chlorine's
effects are also largely psychological: the chemical triggers fear,
shock, and panic in a way that other conventional weapons don't. In the
case of Aleppo, Solvang suspects the regime strategically used chlorine
to force a mass exodus of the city.
Chlorine has a dark history in conflicts stretching back to the first world war. Its use at Ypres on 22 April 1915
marked a new era in chemical warfare. The possible threat of gas
attacks had resulted in a treaty signed in 1899 prohibiting their use.
The treaty did not stop the French from launching shells containing a
primitive tear gas on German lines in 1914 but their aim had been
disruption. The development of chlorine gas attacks were designed to
kill. To avoid breaching the words of the treaty, though not the spirit,
the pioneer of chemical warfare, Fritz Haber, planned the release of
the gas from canisters – no projectiles would be involved.Canisters of chlorine were amassed along a fifteen mile stretch of German lines. The plan proceeded exactly as Haber had predicted. One hundred French troops died in the attack – a remarkably small number in a conflict that regularly saw the slaughter of thousands.
In the following months, the Allies also developed methods of deploying chlorine gas and both sides went on to develop even more toxic and devastating chemical agents to unleash on their enemies. Haber’s hopes for shortening the war were hopelessly off the mark. After the first chlorine attack at Ypres, the war would continue to grind on for another three and a half years, and estimates of over a million people are thought to have died as a result of the use of poison gas.
A decade later, the Geneva Protocol of 1925, the first constructive international laws banning the use of chemical weapons, was introduced.
The horrific results of poison gas in warfare have spurred the drafting of various treaties signed since the end of the first world war. Progressive agreements in this area have resulted in the banning of the use of chemical weapons in warfare as well as the production, transportation and stockpiling of these compounds. Sadly this has not brought an end to their use in conflicts.
But despite its deadly effects, chlorine isn't classified in the same league as sarin or mustard gas. It exists in somewhat of a grey zone under today's international laws and is only regarded as a chemical weapon when it's used maliciously. Chlorine's complicated status on the spectrum of chemical weapons raises tough questions about the definitions of chemical warfare.
For instance, why are some lethal chemicals internationally prohibited, while others aren't?
The difference between chlorine and sarin - commonly known as "nerve" gas - is that chlorine is readily available, as it used for many other beneficial ways. It is easily done and weaponised easily.
Tens of millions of tonnes of chlorine are produced around the world each year. It's used to disinfect water supplies, in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, antiseptics, and drugs, in textile industries, the bleaching of paper, in the separation of metals such as gold, nickel, and copper from their ores, as well as such household chemicals like adhesives.
Chlorine is used on a daily basis in all countries and can be easily produced, in all of our countries.
It creates panic and terror especially among civilians but the difficulty to eradicate it - it's not declarable - so the state parties are not bound to declare the chlorine stocks. That is why it can be easily used by any "rebel" and that is why it is more difficult to contain it than other chemical weapons.
Not that it does even matter in dirty warfares.
This gas is classified as a "cytoxic" agent, meaning that it attacks all living cells it comes into contact with. Made of sulphur dichloride and ethylene, the thick, oily, brown liquid gives off a weak garlic, horseradish or mustard odour when released.
Although introduced to the battlefield in 1917, the nasty effects of sulphur mustard were known as far back as the 1860s. A German chemist named Albert Niemann (the same individual who discovered cocaine in 1859), was among the first to document the poison’s characteristics. In 1913, British and German civilian researchers studying sulphur mustard were accidentally exposed during lab work and had to be hospitalized. The German military obtained the notes about the incident and promptly explored weaponizing sulphur mustard.
Germany eventually developed an array of delivery systems for mustard gas including artillery shells, mortar rounds, rockets, free fall bombs and even land mines. According to one estimate, the British army alone suffered 20,000 mustard gas casualties in the last year of the war.
The first sign of mustard gas poisoning is a mild skin irritation that appears several hours after exposure. Affected areas gradually turn yellow and eventually agonizing blisters form on the skin. Eyes become red, sore and runny — extreme pain and blindness follows. Other symptoms include nasal congestion, sinus pain, hoarseness, coughing and in extreme cases respiratory failure. Sustained exposure can produce nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Fatalities typically occur within a few days, but it can take weeks, even months for survivors to fully recover. And some never do; permanent blindness, scars, long-term respiratory damage and heightened risk of cancer are just some of the long-term effects of mustard gas poisoning. To this day, there is no antidote for mustard gas. The CDC reports that treatment options are limited to “supportive care.”
Despite the outrage that followed Germany’s use of mustard gas in 1917, the Allies immediately engineered their own stockpiles of the stuff. By November, the British were dropping sulphur mustard onto German trenches at Cambrai. In fact, the breakout through the Hindenburg Line in 1918 was aided by a massive Allied mustard gas attack. America’s Dow Chemical manufactured the poison during the last year of the war.
Although the use of mustard gas was universally condemned after the war and later banned by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, Western armies continued to use it long after 1918. British forces participating in the intervention in Russia used sulfur mustard shells against the Bolsheviks. Both the Spanish and French air corps dropped the agent from planes onto Rif insurgents in Morocco during the 1920s. Italians used mustard gas against Abyssinian guerrillas while the Japanese gassed Chinese armies and civilians alike in Manchuria during the 1930s.
During World War Two, the Allies stockpiled millions of tons of mustard gas and other chemical weapons just behind the frontlines in the event of an Axis gas attack. In December of 1943, an American supply ship laden with 2,000 mustard gas shells was damaged in an air raid off Bari, Italy. Much of the deadly cargo seeped into the waters. More than 600 American personnel were exposed to the gas and 60 died. An unknown number of Italian civilians also perished, as collateral damage. Allied commanders suppressed the whole story for fear the Germans might resort to chemical weapons in response.
Mustard gas was used in anger during the 1960s in the Noeth Yemen civil war. Twenty years later, Saddam Hussein outraged the world by dropping it on both the Iranian army and Iraq’s own Kurdish population. More than 5,000 civilians died in a mustard gas attack on the city of Halabja in 1988.
Despite all the damages, mustard gas continues to do harm to this day. Abandoned stockpiles of the agent are frequently discovered and often injure those who stumble across it. In 2002, archeologists unearthed a lost consignment of mustard gas while performing an excavation at the Presidio in San Francisco. In 2010, a fishing trawler inadvertently dredged up some vintage gas shells from the bottom of the Atlantic off New York. Several of the crew were burned by the toxin and hospitalized.
To end this chapter on a good note, I must say that albeit it’s fearsome reputation as a weapon, mustard gas has also saved lives. After World War Two, medical researchers who were aware of sulfur mustard’s cell-destroying properties fashioned the first cancer-fighting chemotherapy treatments from mustard gas.
However, these benefits hardly outweigh the weapon’s legacy of horror.
It's common name is due to the fact that it is a nerve agent that was also developed in Germany in 1938, but not for warfare but as a pesticide. It is a human-made substance that's similar to insecticides called organophosphates, yet is far more powerful.
It is clear, colorless, tasteless, and odorless liquid in pure form, and dissolves easily in water. It rapidly evaporates into a dense gas that sinks to low-lying areas, and is the most volatile of all nerve agents.
In a bomb, mixes as two chemicals to weaponize the nerve agent. It can affect people through their skin, eyes, and lungs, and through contaminated food and clothes.
It was used in attacks on Japan in 1994 and in Syria in 2013. And it has been used by Israel in Palestinian civilian population since 1983, in both Gaza and the West Bank. Without any punishment from the UN.
Regardless of official pronouncements, the Israeli government has had a deep and abiding interest in the full range of chemical and biological warfare agents. It is well known that Israel has been developing chemical and biological weapons for decades at its Institute of Biological Research (IIBR) complex in Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. This facility has been involved in, among many other things, "an extensive effort to identify practical methods of synthesis for nerve gases (such as tabun, sarin, and VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds."
One
of the IIBR's specialties is inventing novel delivery systems for
chemical weapons. One example is a revolver with a range of 150
feet. On impact, a bullet from this weapon injects a needle
impregnated with a deadly toxin. The whole affair is designed to
penetrate just enough to deliver a fatal dose, and leave little or
no trace of the needle.
IIBR's
expertise is also highly scalable. In the aftermath of a tragic
1992 air crash in Amsterdam, the large scale production of nerve
gases at IIBR became very difficult to deny. An El Al 747 jumbo
cargo jet, flying from New York to Tel Aviv, plowed into a
12-story Amsterdam apartment building, killing the four people on
the plane and at least 43 people on the ground in an instant
inferno. Teams in white hazmat suits, never identified or
acknowledged by officials, descended on the scene and hauled away
certain debris. The Dutch and Israeli governments assured the
public that the plane had been carrying "perfume and gift
articles", and "no dangerous material" was onboard.
In
time, a syndrome of debilitating and chronic health disorders
beset at least 850 local survivors. They and their doctors
suspected a connection to the El Al crash. In 1998, a Dutch
newspaper partially leaked the flight manifest; 20,000 pounds of
chemicals had been on the plane, including large amounts of three
of the four ingredients needed to make sarin, a deadly nerve gas -
enough, when properly mixed, to annihilate a major world city.
Finally, El Al admitted the presence of the three chemicals. But
the identity of one-third of the chemicals on the plane remains a
secret to this day. A Dutch citizens group, OVB, literally dug
deeper to learn more. They found that soil at the crash site was
tainted with uranium, zirconium and lanthanum. Tests also found
depleted uranium in the stool samples of local survivors, which,
doctors said, corresponded well with the symptoms suffered in the
post-crash health syndrome.
Reviewing Israel's weapons of mass destruction capabilities, the
Center for Nonproliferation Studies describes its chemical warfare
component as an "active weapons program" with "production
capability for mustard and nerve agents."
Israel
is a world leader in acetylcholine research, and hosts
international symposia in the field. Nerves use acetylcholine to
interact with muscles, and it is this vital function that nerve
gases attack. Scientists at IIBR continue to research the effects
of nerve gas agents. Some of their results are published.
It
appears that Israel has had the ability to produce and weaponize a
variety of banned chemical agents, including the full array of
nerve gases, for many years, in much larger quantities than would
have been required for last year's sporadic attacks on Palestinian
civilians. Noted for its innovations in weaponry, Israel could
certainly have produced the dispensing canisters used in these
attacks. It is also clear that Israel had access to the raw
materials needed to make nerve gases - they have been shipped
directly to the IIBR from the United States.
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, moderate exposure to Nerve gas causes confusion, drowsiness, and headache. Then, watery eyes, eye, pain, blurry vision, small/pinpoint pupils, cough, drooling, runny nose, rapid breathing, chest tightness; victims have described breathing sarin gas as "a knife made of fire" tearing up their lungs. Excessive sweating, muscle twitching at the site of contact, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, increased urination, diarrhea; abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, weakness.
Lethal exposure to this gas causes convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and breathing failure.
On this topic, allow me to tell you a real nasty story.
In occupied Palestine, where neighborhoods can become high-tech, made-in-America shooting galleries in the blink of an eye, a fex years ago, in a given day that might have been just another day of occupation, the Israeli army chose that afternoon to introduce a new and mysterious gas weapon to a defenseless population. To ensure its delivery, the soldiers fired the gas canisters into the streets, courtyards, and houses of the Khan Younis and Gharbi refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
The fourth dirty weapon of mass destruction has been repeatedly used by the United States and Israel. The first, in Vietnam, Iraq and God knows where else; the latter, in Lebanon and Palestine.
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, moderate exposure to Nerve gas causes confusion, drowsiness, and headache. Then, watery eyes, eye, pain, blurry vision, small/pinpoint pupils, cough, drooling, runny nose, rapid breathing, chest tightness; victims have described breathing sarin gas as "a knife made of fire" tearing up their lungs. Excessive sweating, muscle twitching at the site of contact, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, increased urination, diarrhea; abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, weakness.
Lethal exposure to this gas causes convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and breathing failure.
On this topic, allow me to tell you a real nasty story.
In occupied Palestine, where neighborhoods can become high-tech, made-in-America shooting galleries in the blink of an eye, a fex years ago, in a given day that might have been just another day of occupation, the Israeli army chose that afternoon to introduce a new and mysterious gas weapon to a defenseless population. To ensure its delivery, the soldiers fired the gas canisters into the streets, courtyards, and houses of the Khan Younis and Gharbi refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
The
people of Khan Younis are utterly familiar with teargas; their
neighborhood has long been known as one of the most heavily
teargassed areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
But no-one in Khan Younis had seen these strange canisters before,
or their seemingly harmless multicolored smoke.
The
smoking gas had no immediate effect. There was none of the
instant irritation to the eyes and breathing passages caused by
all forms of teargas. And, at first, the gas had no odor. "It's
harmless - this gas is nothing!", yelled a few teenagers, taunting
Israeli soldiers. "Throw more!" The soldiers complied.
After
a few minutes, the gas started to smell. "Like mint," several
people said. One resident later recalled that, "the smell was
good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale it."
A girl reported that "its taste was like sugar. The smell was
sweet."
"First..the
smoke was white, then yellow, then black," a teenage victim
recalled later. Another victim said that the smoke changed colors
"like a rainbow." But mostly the smoke was black, and very sooty.
When the gas canisters landed on homes, black smoke billowed so
thickly that neighbors rushed to the scene, believing the houses
had caught fire.
Soon,
however, people began to realize that the gas wasn't harmless
after all. One man recalled: "..ten - fifteen minutes later I got
severe stomach cramps. I felt that my stomach was being torn
apart. And a burning sensation in my chest. I couldn't breathe."
People began to vomit, and go into seizures and spasms, then
collapse and lose consciousness.
Forty
people were admitted to Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis "in an
odd state of hysteria and nervous breakdown", suffering from
"fainting and spasms." Sixteen of them had to be transferred to
the intensive care unit. Doctors "reported the Israeli use of gas
that appeared to cause convulsions."
Many other attacks like this one followed in both Gaza and the West Bank.
The last one happened last week, when Israeli planes sprayed "herbicides" inside Gaza for the fourth time this year.
One cannot predict the consequences yet.
Many other attacks like this one followed in both Gaza and the West Bank.
The last one happened last week, when Israeli planes sprayed "herbicides" inside Gaza for the fourth time this year.
One cannot predict the consequences yet.
It is called White phosphorus, which the US used in Vietnam combined with Napalm, produced by the dreadful Monsanto.
White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty to which the United States or Israel are signatory.
The name of this element derives from the Greek "phosphoros" or light bearing, the ancient name for the planet Venus when appearing before sunrise. Brand discovered phosphorus in 1669 by preparing it from urine. Phosphorus exists in four or more allotropic forms: white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid; when pure it is colorless and transparent. White phosphorus has two modifications: alpha and beta with a transition temperature at -3.8oC. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulfide.
Never found free in nature, Phosphorus is widely distributed in combination with minerals. Phosphate rock, which contains the mineral apatite, an impure tri-calcium phosphate, is an important source of the element. Large deposits are found in Russia, in Morocco, and in Florida, Tennessee, Utah, Idaho, and elsewhere.
WP
is a colorless to yellow translucent wax-like substance with a
pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military is highly
energetic (active) and ignites once it is exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus is a pyrophoric material, that is, it is spontaneously flammable).
When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and is oxidized rapidly to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. Phosphorus also becomes luminous in the dark, and this property is conveyed to "tracer bullets." This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen. Up to 15 percent of the WP remains within the charred wedge and can reignite if the felt is crushed and the unburned WP is exposed to the atmosphere.
White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries. The resultant burn typically appears as a necrotic area with a yellowish color and characteristic garliclike odor. It is highly lipid soluble and as such, it has rapid dermal penetration once particles are embedded under the skin and these injuries result in delayed wound healing.
Incandescent
particles of WP may produce extensive burns. Phosphorus burns on the
skin are deep and painful. The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in
size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles
continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen. Contact with
these particles can cause local burns. These weapons are particularly
nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. Simple pieces of white phosphorus can burn
right down to the bone. Burns usually are limited to areas of exposed
skin (upper extremities, face). Burns frequently are second and third
degree because of the rapid ignition and highly lipophilic properties of
white phosphorus.
White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty to which the United States or Israel are signatory.
The name of this element derives from the Greek "phosphoros" or light bearing, the ancient name for the planet Venus when appearing before sunrise. Brand discovered phosphorus in 1669 by preparing it from urine. Phosphorus exists in four or more allotropic forms: white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid; when pure it is colorless and transparent. White phosphorus has two modifications: alpha and beta with a transition temperature at -3.8oC. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulfide.
Never found free in nature, Phosphorus is widely distributed in combination with minerals. Phosphate rock, which contains the mineral apatite, an impure tri-calcium phosphate, is an important source of the element. Large deposits are found in Russia, in Morocco, and in Florida, Tennessee, Utah, Idaho, and elsewhere.
WP
is a colorless to yellow translucent wax-like substance with a
pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military is highly
energetic (active) and ignites once it is exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus is a pyrophoric material, that is, it is spontaneously flammable). When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and is oxidized rapidly to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. Phosphorus also becomes luminous in the dark, and this property is conveyed to "tracer bullets." This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen. Up to 15 percent of the WP remains within the charred wedge and can reignite if the felt is crushed and the unburned WP is exposed to the atmosphere.
White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries. The resultant burn typically appears as a necrotic area with a yellowish color and characteristic garliclike odor. It is highly lipid soluble and as such, it has rapid dermal penetration once particles are embedded under the skin and these injuries result in delayed wound healing.
Bottomline, it causes skin to melt away from the bone and can break down a victim's jawbone. White phosphorus - known in Vietnam as Willie Pete - is still used by sections of the world's military in shells and grenades, igniting spontaneously at around 30C to produce an intense heat and thick pillars of smoke.
In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, "it fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died."
When used as an incendiary, as the US did in Iraq and Israel in Lebanon and in Gaza, it can result in painful chemical burns - injuries which can often prove fatal.
Further problems are caused because the substance can stick to clothing or on the skin and continues to burn unchecked as particles are exposed to air.
Witness accounts of combat in Fallujah, where a significant civilian population were living, claim the injured affected by phosphorus suffered horrendous burns.
Skin injuries caused by the substance are often "deep and painful". The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen.
These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it can burn right down to the bone.
In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, "it fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died." 
When used as an incendiary, as the US did in Iraq and Israel in Lebanon and in Gaza, it can result in painful chemical burns - injuries which can often prove fatal.Further problems are caused because the substance can stick to clothing or on the skin and continues to burn unchecked as particles are exposed to air.
Witness accounts of combat in Fallujah, where a significant civilian population were living, claim the injured affected by phosphorus suffered horrendous burns.
Skin injuries caused by the substance are often "deep and painful". The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen.
These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it can burn right down to the bone.
The
amazing thing is that White Phosphorus is used in almost every product
imaginable - from soft drinks to toothpaste. White phosphorus is used by
industry to produce phosphoric acid and other chemicals for use in
fertilizers, food additives, and cleaning compounds. Small amounts of
white phosphorus were used in the past in pesticides and fireworks.
But it is still very toxic.
Democracy Now - Why Does U.S. Consider Iran the Greatest Threat to Peace, When Rest of World Agrees It's the U.S.?
Al Jazeera interactive: From chlorine to sarin: Chemical weapons in war
Democracy Now - Why Does U.S. Consider Iran the Greatest Threat to Peace, When Rest of World Agrees It's the U.S.?
Over the first 75 days of the Trump administration, the White House has taken multiple steps to escalate the possibility of a U.S. war with Iran. Trump included Iran on both his first and second Muslim travel bans. As a candidate, Trump also threatened to dismantle the landmark Iran nuclear agreement. For more on U.S.-Iranian relations, we speak with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky.
"It’s a pretty remarkable fact that—first of all, it is a joke. Half the world is cracking up in laughter. The United States doesn’t just interfere in elections. It overthrows governments it doesn’t like, institutes military dictatorships. Simply in the case of Russia alone—it’s the least of it—the U.S. government, under Clinton, intervened quite blatantly and openly, then tried to conceal it, to get their man Yeltsin in, in all sorts of ways. So, this, as I say, it’s considered—it’s turning the United States, again, into a laughingstock in the world".
Ben Norton & Max Blumenthal: Is Trump Rescuing Al-Qaeda's 'Heartland' in Syria?
Israel has been blocking aid workers from entering Gaza. The Gaza Strip is one of the most isolated places in the world. The territory has been under Israeli blockade since Hamas siezed control in 2007. Almost two million Palestinians are cut off from aid, proper medical care and work outside the strip.
Now rights workers say they too have struggled to get into Gaza.
Human
Rights Watch (HRW) says investigators are repeatedly stopped for
security reasons by both Israeli and Egyptian border guards.
So, where does this leave a possible International Criminal Court investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Gaza?
UNICEF: Four years after report, Israel's ill-treatment of detained Palestinian children remains systemactic.
Gideon Levy on Syrian babies: "Israel’s victims in Gaza 2014, like Assad’s now, included babies and children; they, too, were cruelly massacred and their numbers were also high enough to shock": The yearning Israeli Jewish soul looks toward Syria
After 130 days in prison, IDF frees conscientious objector Tamar Alon: ‘The price I paid is small compared to the price millions of Palestinians have been paying for 50 years,’ says Alon, who was imprisoned for refusing to take part in the occupation.
972+: Israeli planes spray herbicides inside Gaza for fourth time this year.
. Israel sunk in 'incremental tyranny', say former Shin Bet chiefs.
OCHA
Amit Gilutz, of the Israeli peace organization B'tslem, discuss the impact of the israeli occupation in Area C related to water, while visiting one of the affected bedouin villages.
BOA NOTÍCIA! Cuba é o primeiro país do mundo a conseguir eliminar a transmissão de HIV para seu bebê.
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