Information sheet published by White House after US strikes on Syria began includes eyewitness sightings of helicopters dropping barrel bombs on Douma

The US has claimed it has “a large body” of evidence pointing to the Assad regime’s responsibility for the 7 April chemical attack on Douma, including eyewitness sightings of helicopters dropping barrel bombs on Douma, and “reliable intelligence” that Syrian military officials coordinated the attack.



The White House released an information sheet making its case for regime involvement in the Douma attack shortly after Donald Trump announced he had ordered air strikes on Syria.

Damascus and Moscow have denied any involvement in the Douma attack. Russian officials first said their experts had found no trance of chemical weapons in Douma, on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus, and then claimed that the attack had been staged by rebels. On Friday, Moscow claimed that British government had been behind the “staged” attack.

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Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were due to visit to Douma on Saturday, but it was not clear if that visit would proceed in the wake of the overnight air strikes. The OPCW mandate allows it to state whether banned chemical weapons were used but not attribute responsibility.

“A large body of information indicates that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons in the Duma area of East Ghutah, near Damascus, on April 7, 2018. Our information is consistent and corroborated by multiple sources,” the White House statement said.

“This conclusion is based on descriptions of the attack in multiple media sources, the reported symptoms experienced by victims, videos and images showing two assessed barrel bombs from the attack, and reliable information indicating coordination between Syrian military officials before the attack,” the White House assessment said, but did not give details on whether the information on the officials was from intercepts, informers or other channels.

The White House said the Douma poison gas attack was part of a major offensive on the rebel-held area by the regime, and that regime helicopters were seen dropping improvised “barrel bombs” on the district.

“Multiple government helicopters were observed over Douma on April 7, with witnesses specifically reporting a Mi-8 helicopter, known to have taken off from the Syrian regime’s nearby Dumayr airfield, circling over Douma during the attack,” the statement said. “Numerous eyewitnesses corroborate that barrel bombs were dropped from these helicopters, a tactic used to target civilians indiscriminately throughout the war. Photos of barrel bombs dropped in Douma closely match those used previously by the regime.”

Based on that evidence, the White House assessment concluded: “These barrel bombs were likely used in the chemical attack.”

The statement said that “a significant body of information” pointed to the use of chlorine in the Douma attack while “some additional information” indicated that the nerve agent sarin was also used. The defence secretary, James Mattis, said on Friday evening the US was sure about chlorine use in Douma but was “not certain about sarin right now”.

“Reliable intelligence also indicates that Syrian military officials coordinated what appears to be the use of chlorine in Duma on April 7,” the White House assessment said. It suggested the evidence for sarin use was based principally on the symptoms of the victims, which it says were “consistent with exposure to sarin.”



Citing descriptions from the media, NGO’s and the World Health Organisation, the White House documents described constricted pupils, convulsions, and disruption to the central nervous system.

“These symptoms, in addition to the dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries reported, suggest that the regime also used sarin in its attacks on April 7,” the White House said.

There have been press reports citing officials as saying the US had got hold of blood and urine samples from the victims, but these were not referred to in the published evidence sheet.

In it, the White House rejects Syrian government and Russian claims that the attack was staged by the last rebel group in the area, Jaysh al-Islam.

“We have no information to suggest that this group has ever used chemical weapons,” it said, adding that it was unlikely the group could have fabricated such a long number of reports pointing to regime involvement.

The White House said that the Assad government was “the only actor in Syria with both the motive and the means to deploy nerve agents.”

“The use of helicopters further implicates the regime,” it added. “No non-state group has conducted air operations in the conflict.”