Thread by @bobfrombrockley

Report by the UN's chemical weapon watchdog, the @OPCW, came out this week, on one of the Syrian civil war's many, many lesser-known chemical attacks: in Saraqeb in 2018.

https://twitter.com/OPCW/status/1381570589714944003

In this thread, I'll collect some of the threads about it which are useful...

1/ Here's @bellingcat's @N_Waters89 who has done important open source investigations on war crimes by Syrian regime, US & other states.

https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1381946628165279745

2/ Nick notes a shocking detail buried in the report: the town had been hit by chemical weapons so many times over so many years that previous chemical attacks left traces that potentially contaminated samples - the horrific residue of multiple war crimes.

https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1381947560286416898?s=20

3/ Also that the OPCW thoroughly analysed and refuted a scenario where the Saraqib attack was staged using domestic cleaning products, a common claim from the bedroom denialists here on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1381947853577261058?s=20

4/ Here's @EliotHiggins, also of @bellingcat:

https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1381575107366248451?s=20

5/ Eliot also highlights the OPCW's demolition of the "staging" theory:

https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1381574389087485952?s=20

6/ Here's @KreaseChan of @AmnestyUK:

https://twitter.com/KreaseChan/status/1381577551211077636?s=20

7/ He notes the report confirms the reports from human rights organisations (such as AI) at the time, which accorded with those of Syrian civil activists on the ground, & which (unlike Douma a few weeks later) got almost no media attention in the West:

https://twitter.com/KreaseChan/status/1381610582030360579?s=20

8/ This is @tobiaschneider of @GPPi, which has extensively researched HUNDREDS of credible chemical weapons reports in Syria:

https://twitter.com/tobiaschneider/status/1381576435735920642?s=20

9/ Tobias draws attention to the fact that, unusually, the OPCW attributed blame for the attack to a specific Syrian regime military unit: the Tiger Forces (aka 25th Special Mission Forces Division), responsible for many of the worst atrocities of the war.

https://twitter.com/tobiaschneider/status/1381578039566405632?s=20

10/ French journalist and researcher @elieguckert also picks up the Tiger Forces' responsibility, and connects this to other war crimes they've committed on the ground in Syria (in Latamneh), and to their links with the French far right:

https://twitter.com/elieguckert/status/1381578154742050818

11/ @N_Waters89 has documented the personal involvement of the Tiger Forces leadership (very close to President Assad) in aerial chemical in Syria. One day let's hope these people are brought to justice. bellingcat.com/news/2020/04/1…

12/ On the Tiger Forces, reports by @GregoryPWaters in @reviewintl reveal their level of violence, extraordinary even in the brutal arena of Syria's civil war war
international-review.org/tag/tiger-forc…

Especially this on the headchopping practices of this "elite" force: international-review.org/tiger-forces-p…

13/ Why am I giving so much space to this report? The Syrian war is the most documented war in human history, yet an army of disinformation merchants (whether Russian media employees, Ba'athist fellow travellers, conspiracists, useful idiots, or contrarian grifters) try to

generate fog & confusion. This adds a layer of injury to the brutalisation of the bombed, starved & displaced Syrians. And it is a key front in the hybrid war that authoritarian states are waging against the infrastructure of truth & information on which democracy & dissent rely.