Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
The man who orchestrated the chemical attacks in Syria has died in Idlib. Mohamed Amin Khalid al-Hamoud was a chemical engineer, who was in control of the chemical weapons for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), headed by Mohamed al-Julani.
According to HTS's media, al-Hamoud died of a heart attack, but other sources in Idlib say he was poisoned to death. He began with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has dissolved into the current HTS.
The Syrian armed conflict has been over for years. The last terrorist-occupied territory is Idlib, west of Aleppo. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) holds about 3 million residents as human shields. HTS runs Idlib like an Islamic State, and Julani was formerly a member of ISIS, before creating his own Al Qaeda branch in Syria, Jibhat al-Nusra.
When the US designated Jibhat al-Nusra a terrorist group, Julani changed the name of the group to HTS, and the act of re-branding allowed him to live in freedom in Idlib, despite the 10-million-dollar bounty the US had placed on his head. But, that lucrative prize has not been awarded, even though American journalist Martin Smith of PBS interviewed him in Idlib, and UN and other international aid agencies hand-deliver millions of dollars in aid directly to Julani.
In the PBS interview in February 2021, Julani said, "For example, till now there's still international recognition of Bashar al-Assad, although he carried out tens of chemical attacks against his people. Actually, it was said over 100 attacks."
In March 2011, the beginning of the US-NATO attack on Syria for regime change began in Deraa.
On August 21, 2012, US President Obama, the architect of the US-NATO attack on Syria, gave a speech in which he said that the US would consider the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a 'red line'. His threat was directed at the Syrian government in Damascus, but it was the US-supported armed opposition who took heed and began their plans.
Obama's 'red line' speech was a 'green light' for the armed opposition, which had been trained, funded, supplied, and armed by the US. The US media presented them as freedom fighters and Sen. John McCain lobbied for them in Congress to keep their funding. They called themselves the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Despite the billions of dollars poured into the group, by 2017 President Trump shut down the CIA program responsible for the FSA.
The very first use of chemicals in the Syrian conflict occurred on March 19, 2013, just seven months after Obama's 'red line' threat.
Khan al-Assal is a village just west of Aleppo on the road to Idlib. The town was inhabited by farmers and livestock. The FSA had attacked the village previously, but the residents had fought back and repelled the attack. The second attack on the town utilized chemical weapons and marked the very first use of chemicals in the Syrian conflict.
Western media blamed the SAA, while the Syrian media blamed the FSA. Syrian TV news reporters were on the scene both at the site of the attack and among the survivors who were being treated at the hospital. Eyewitnesses said a missile fell and a smell of chlorine was present and both people and livestock had died, which was filmed by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The Syrian government wrote a letter of complaint to the UN requesting a UN delegation of chemical investigators to come to Syria to investigate the chemical attack. The UN replied that it was too dangerous in that area to send a team of investigators.
On August 21, 2013, a chemical attack east of Damascus, in the suburbs of Ghouta, occurred. The video uploaded by the FSA showed horrific scenes of rows of dead children lying on the floor. The video was shown globally for days. There was no verification of the source of the video, or its authenticity. But, as the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words."
Immediately, most were unified in their conclusion that the SAA had carried out the chemical attack. What was missing in their long-distance jump to conclusion, was the fact the Syrian government had been requesting the UN chemical investigators to come to Syria to investigate Khan al-Assal, and the investigators had just arrived finally in Damascus the day before the Ghouta attack. They had just unpacked their bags when a new chemical attack occurred very near where they were staying.
Fred Pleitgen, a journalist with CNN, was in Damascus to follow the UN investigation story, and he reported on going to all the hospitals in Damascus after the attack looking for victims or survivors and found none.
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