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The Khan al-Assal chemical attack was an alleged chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, Syria, on 19 March 2013, which resulted in at least 26 fatalities including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, and more than 86 injuries. Immediately after the incident the Syrian government and opposition accused each other of carrying out the attack, but neither side presented clear documentation. The Syrian government asked the United Nations to investigate this particular incident, but disputes over the scope of the investigation (as the UN and others wanted to investigate other alleged incidents in addition) led to lengthy delays. In the interim, the Syrian government invited its ally Russia to visit Khan al-Assal and having taken samples Russia told the UN that they believed the attack involved the use of sarin, a conclusion which matched that reached by the United States. However, Russia held the opposition responsible, while the US held the government responsible. UN investigators finally arrived on the ground in Syria in August (with a mandate excluding the evaluation of culpability for chemical weapons attacks), but their arrival coincided with the much larger-scale 2013 Ghouta attacks which took place on 21 August, pushing the Khan al-Assal investigation "onto the backburner" according to a UN spokesman. As of early September the UN had yet to report its conclusions.

Background

The attack took place in the context of the Syrian civil war's extended Battle of Aleppo; Khan al-Assal is a town about 15 kilometers west of Aleppo. At the time of the alleged chemical attacked on 19 March, government forces held parts of Khan al-Assal, but rebel forces had gained control of the police academy. The rebel forces had taken control of the police academy at the conclusion of a fierce eight day battle that concluded on 3 March, when the last government defenders of the police academy were killed. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 120 government soldiers/policemen and 80 rebels were killed during the battle, and there were unconfirmed reports from SOHR activists and the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper that some of the police academy defenders were killed after being captured.

Incident

The first report came from the government-owned Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), which reported that "terrorists", had fired a rocket "containing chemical materials" into the Khan al-Assal area, which landed 300 meters from a Syrian army post. The news agency displayed photographs of what it said were the victims, but there appeared to be no indication in the photographs that they had suffered a chemical attack, like burns or skin discoloration or quarantine measures. A Reuters photographer was quoted as saying that he had visited victims in Aleppo hospitals and that they had breathing problems; he also said that people had told him that the air smelled of chlorine after the attack.

Versions

The military claimed that a home-made rocket was fired at a military checkpoint situated at the entrance to the town from the vicinity of Al-Bab, a district close to Aleppo controlled by the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra. According to the military the attack caused vomiting, fainting, suffocation and seizures among those in the immediate area and was due to the rocket containing a chlorine compound dissolved in saline solution.

Activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed the government had tried to use the rocket to attack the Khan Al-Assal police academy, which had recently been taken over by rebel forces, and accidentally hit the government-controlled area instead. A spokesman for the rebel Higher Military Council in Aleppo, Qassim Saadeddine, said the government had carried out a chemical attack.

Analyses

Some independent chemical weapons analysts, after studying initial intelligence reports and video coverage of survivors on state-run television, did not believe that the regime or rebels used advanced chemical. Lack of burns, skin discoloration or quarantine measures have been noted. Some analysts, however, suspected that victims may have been deliberately exposed to a "caustic" agent such as chlorine. Syrian military source speaking to Channel Four News, also believed that the chemical agent in the Khan al-Assal attack was "a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner". This would not technically be a use of a chemical weapon as laid down in the Chemical Weapons Convention.

One analyst (Bretton-Gordon) cautioned that conventional high explosives can also produce an odor which might be mistaken for chlorine, and that there was no indication from the images he had seen that the chemical agent had been used. While Jean Pascal Zanders, a chemical weapons expert and a senior research fellow for the EU Institute for Security Studies, cast doubt on the use of chlorine, saying that one small rocket couldn't deliver the quantity needed to kill 25 people.

On 9 Jul, Vitaly Churkin, Russian UN ambassador, said Russian experts analyzed samples of material they collected from the site of the attack, at a Russian laboratory certified by the OPCW. The report that Russia submitted to UN concluded that Sarin had been used in the chemical attack, and that the rebels were responsible for making the sarin and launching the attack. The report was not made public. A short summary of the report that was made public provided the following evidence in support of the claim that the attack was carried out by the opposition:

1. The projectile used in the incident "does not belong to the standard ammunition of the Syrian army" and its bursting charge was RDX, which is "not used in standard chemical munitions". It's type and parameters are similar to Basha'ir-3 rocket-propelled unguided missiles, manufactured by Bashair al-Nasr brigade.
2. Soil and projectile samples were found to contain Sarin and diisopropyl fluorophosphate, which was "used by Western states for producing chemical weapons during World War II." The sarin had been produced in "cottage industry" conditions without the use of chemical stabilisers that would permit longer-term storage.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the US officials had "studied the Russian report but ... found no reason to change our assessment" that the Syrian government was responsible for the attack. British Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant said that while it was "nice" that Syria allowed Russian investigators access to Khan al-Assal, it was "considerably more important that they give access to independent and credible U.N. investigators who are not directly involved in the conflict and who can be expected to produce a more impartial and credible report."

Some independent chemical weapons experts were critical of some of the conclusions of the Russian report. Richard Guthrie, formerly project leader of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Project of the SIPRI, said that:

1. The use of a non-standard munition and the lower grade RDX used in the rocket would be likely if the Syrian "government was developing a semi-improvised short range rocket" and "if there happened to be a stock available".
2. The non-military grade sarin makeup, might reflect only that "there are a lot of different ways to make sarin" or "be the result of an old sarin stock being used", degradation would explain the dirty mix described in the Russian report.

UN Investigations

The Syrian government unusually asked the United Nations to investigate and said it that blood and soil samples had been collected and had been sent to the UN already. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Åke Sellström on 27 March 2013 to head a fact-finding mission to investigate the incident. However, disputes over the scope of the investigation (as the UN and others wanted to investigate other alleged incidents in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere, amidst increasing reports of chemical weapons use in Syria) led to lengthy delays as the Syrian government refused access to areas other than Khan al-Assal. There were also disputes over access to Syrian military sites and the exclusion of Russian and Chinese investigators from the UN team. Russia and the United States accused each other of delaying the investigation. As a result of the delays the Syrian government asked Russia to conduct an investigation.

In June 2013, prior to UN investigators arriving in Syria, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said that there was reason to believe that "limited quantities of toxic chemicals" had been used in the Khan al-Assal attack, but that it was not then in a position "to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator". In June the US wrote to the UN that it had concluded that sarin had been used by the Syrian government in the Khan al-Assal attack, and again in Aleppo on 13 April. In July Russian sent a report to UN in which it concluded that sarin had been used by the opposition in the Khan al-Assal attack.

UN investigators finally arrived on the ground in Syria on 18 August, after the Syrian government agreed to allow access to two other unspecified sites besides Khan al-Assal, but with a mandate limited to determining whether chemical weapons had been used and if so which ones, but not who had used them. The Syrian Ambassador to the UN said that the fact that the mandate ruled out evaluating culpability for the attacks was down to the UN and Western delegations. Opposition spokesman al-Mikdad said they hope that this delegation will be able to reach all areas where unconventional weapons have been used, However, expressed doubt that Syria government which "has done everything from changing signs with the names of areas to fabricating evidence with past delegations will do the same with this one. Therefore, we doubt they will be able to uncover truthful results." The inspectors' arrival coincided with the much larger-scale 2013 Ghouta attacks which took place on 21 August, pushing the Khan al-Assal investigation "onto the backburner" according to a UN spokesman. As of early September the UN had yet to report its conclusions.

References

1. ^ Russia Today, 5 September 2013, Russia releases key findings on chemical attack near Aleppo indicating similarity with rebel-made weapons, accessed 5 September 2013
2. ^ Barnard, Anne (19 March 2013). "Syria and Activists Trade Charges on Chemical Weapons". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
3. BBC, 19 March 2013, Syrians trade Khan al-Assal chemical weapons claims
4. ^ Alex Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 23 March 2013, Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists
5. ^ AP, philly.com, 16 June 2013, U.S. says Syria used sarin in two attacks in Aleppo
6. ^ BBC, 18 August 2013, UN chemical weapons inspectors arrive in Syria
7. ^ mcclatchydc.com, 5 September 2013, Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack
8. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/03/19/syria-chemical-weapons-second-attack-damascus
9. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-308777-report-syrian-opposition-fighters-kill-115-policemen.html
10. http://sana.sy/eng/337/2013/03/19/473349.htm
11. BBC News 21 August 2013
12. "Alleged chemical attack kills 25 in northern Syria". Reuters. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
13. BBC, 21 August 2013, Syria chemical weapons allegations
14. ^ CBS News, 29 August 2013, Syria chemical weapons attack blamed on Assad, but where's the evidence?
15. CBS News, 19 March 2013, Syria rebels, regime blame each other for first alleged chemical weapons attack
16. "Report: Syrian officials claim chlorine, saline mix used in Aleppo attack". cnn. 25 March 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
17. "Russia: Syria rebels likely behind Aleppo chemical attack". Reuters. 9 July 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
18. Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, 11 July 2013, Russia slams West's 'propaganda storm' on Syria chemical arms
19. United Nations, 27 March 2013, Head of UN probe into chemical weapons use in Syria says preparatory work has begun
20. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/18/syria-chemical-weapons-un-inspectors_n_3776241.html
21. ^ BBC, 9 July 2013, Russia claims Syria rebels used sarin at Khan al-Assal
22. BBC, 15 April 2013, Syria conflict: UK concerns over chemical weapon use
23. ^ RT, 28 August 2013, Syria asks UN to immediately investigate 3 new ‘chemical attacks’ by rebels
24. AP, Yahoo News, 11 July 2013, Russia says West delays UN probe of Syria weapons
25. Russian delegation to OPCW, 16 July 2013, STATEMENT BY THE DELEGATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AT THE SEVENTY-THIRD SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL UNDER AGENDA ITEM 3
26. AP, Yahoo News, 9 July 2013, Russia: Syrian rebels made, used sarin nerve gas
27. United Nations, 21 August 2013, Highlights of the noon briefing, by eduardo del buey, deputy spokesperson for secretary-general ban ki-moon, 21 august 2013

• Aleppo Governorate
• Massacres of the Syrian civil war
• Mass murder in 2013
• 2013 in Syria