Chemical atrocities of ousted Assad regime: Douma victims recall horror, coercion

Survivors of chemical weapons attacks in Douma, a town in Damascus' Eastern Ghouta region, have accused the ousted Bashar Assad regime of coercing them to lie to international authorities about the attacks.

The Assad regime's widely condemned use of chemical weapons in August 2013 in Eastern Ghouta led to global outrage and a US threat of military intervention.

Under pressure, the regime signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, allowing the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to operate in Syria, with Russia's mediation.

Despite these measures, the regime's continued use of chemical weapons, including an April 2018 attack in Douma during a siege of the town. According to UN data, the assault claimed around 50 lives, most of them women and children, and left hundreds suffering from toxic gas exposure.

- Forced to survive underground

During the siege, Douma's residents and opposition forces relied on a network of underground tunnels for survival. The makeshift shelters included a field hospital where doctors treated victims of the attacks.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mumtaz Al Hemesh, who worked at the hospital, told Anadolu that he faced immense pressure from the ousted regime intelligence to alter his testimony about the use of chemical weapons.

As civilians were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta on “green buses,” Al Hemesh said regime agents warned him not to leave otherwise his family in Damascus would be at risk.

Al Hemesh said he was placed under house arrest in a Damascus hotel until the last evacuation buses departed. Interviews he gave to the regime and Russian media were edited to deny chemical weapons use, he added.

“When we went to testify to UN investigators, regime agents placed listening devices in our pockets,” Al Hemesh said. He criticized the international community for ignoring atrocities in the Eastern Ghouta region of Damascus and in Douma and focusing solely on the use of chemical weapons.

Abu Ali, a resident who lost his wife and four children in the 2018 attack, said the family had been sheltering in a basement when the chemical agent spread like powder throughout the area.

“I had stepped out to get food for my family. As I returned, I saw people dying at the shelter's entrance. Then I lost consciousness.”

Ali said the regime forced him to deny the use of chemical weapons, making him claim in Russian and Syrian media that his family had died in bombings.

He also said he was imprisoned for 18 months in various detention centers, adding that he was tortured for six years by a regime-affiliated officer who sought to suppress the truth about the chemical attack.

“I want justice for my children,” Abu Ali said. His children, who were killed in the attack, were Omer, 12; Ali, 11; Muhammed, 10; and Cudi, 8.

He continues to suffer heart problems caused by chemical exposure.

- Evidence destroyed

Residents of Douma also accused the regime of erasing evidence of its chemical weapons use.

Akram Killis, who was exposed to chemical agents and lost consciousness near his home, said the regime used construction equipment to exhume bodies and landscaped the area to deceive international inspectors.

“They told the inspectors, ‘Look, there are no bodies here',” Killis said, adding that he suffers from permanent health issues, including hair loss and skin conditions, due to the attacks.

Residents also revealed that the regime planted fake chemical bombs at the scene to frame opposition forces. Survivor accounts suggest these staged props were presented to the media as part of the regime's disinformation campaign.

Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party's regime, which had been in power since 1963.

The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.