BBC reporter reveals the fabrication at the chemical scene of the attack in the hall of Douma hospital in the eastern Ghouta of Syria
After a months-long investigation, the BBC’s Riam Dalati expressed his conviction that the scenes, which were said to have been filmed at the Douma hospital east of Damascus on the alleged chemical attack, were just a play.
Dalati, in a series of tweets published on Wednesday, commenting on a report published by his colleague James Harkin on The Intercept website, that the city in the Eastern Ghouta (east to Damascus) was actually attacked on April 7 last year, but the sarin gas wasn’t used, and is expected to confirm Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whether chlorine gas or any other toxic substance was used.
“But beyond that, everything around the attack was fabricated so that it had as much impact as possible.
After nearly six months of investigations, I can absolutely confirm that the scenes of the hospital are always playable and there have been no casualties”.
The journalist noted that he had reached this conclusion based on interviews with activists and members of the White Helmets and other eyewitnesses.
The journalist pointed out that one of the three or four people who filmed the scenes of the play was the doctor named Abu Bakr Hanan, describing him as “violent and dodgy” and linked to the organization “Army of Islam” (Jaish Al Islam), which was controlled by Douma until it was liberated by government forces last spring.
Dalati pointed out that the talk in this tape is about “the lack of enough doctors”, but one person, a doctor, was filming scenes instead of helping colleagues.
At least one NATO member, along with Russia, was aware of what had happened at the hospital, he said, adding that Moscow had focused on denying the scenes from the hospital, while no one knew what had happened in the residential building where the attack was said to have taken place, except for “Activists who manipulated the scene” there.
The alleged chemical attack became a pretext for the United States, Britain and France on the night of 13-14 April 2018 to hit a series of targets of the Syrian government.
Moscow announced from the start that the attack was fabricated, and the Russian Reconciliation Center confirmed that its doctors had visited the site of the alleged attack two days later and found no signs of toxic substances on the local population.
The Russian side called for a briefing by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemists in the Hague on April 26, 17 as witnesses, revealing details of the measure of the fabricated attack.
To review the original report on The Intercept click here
