Doctors in Turkey say initial tests
of blood samples from victims of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria
last month are negative for sarin gas. May 5-13
The samples from the victims of a suspected
chemical weapons attack on April 29 have been sent to the Turkish capital,
Ankara, for further testing.
REYHANLI, Turkey — Doctors in Turkey say initial tests of
blood samples from victims of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria last month are negative for sarin
gas.
Medics tested the blood samples —
which were taken from some 13 victims of an attack that included white powder
in the northern village of Saraqeb on April 29 — at the Reyhanli hospital on
the same day, but did not find anything unusual, they said.
They tested the blood specifically
for sarin gas — a nerve agent — and also ran regular bloodwork.
The samples from the victims, who
suffered from dizziness, vomiting and respiratory difficulties, have since been
sent to the Turkish capital, Ankara, for further testing.
The development comes as Israeli fighter jets are reported to have carried
out at least several airstrikes on weapons convoys near Damascus over the
weekend.
Employees at the Istanbul
headquarters of the Council of Forensic Medicine, the institute testing the
blood in Ankara, were unable to answer GlobalPost inquiries on the status of
the additional tests.
Doctors in Reyhanli, in Turkey’s
Hatay province, say they believe the Turkish government will keep the final
results a secret due to the potential global political consequences of either
negative or positive results.
US President Barack Obama had
previously said chemical weapons use in the now two-year-long civil war would
be a “red line”, and potentially provoke a US-led intervention against the
government forces of Syrian president Bashar al Assad.
Both Israeli and US officials have
in recent weeks said they believe that chemical weapons, including sarin gas,
have been used in the fighting in Syria but it is unclear in what capacity and
from where the chemicals originated.
MORE FROM GLOBALPOST: SYRIA: The horrific chemical weapons attack that probably wasn’t a
chemical weapons attack (Graphic video)
But while some Syrians say chemical
weapons have been used on civilian neighborhoods in several locations
throughout the country, they remain difficult to identify.
"The symptoms were consistent
with those caused by a chemical, and the effects of this chemical were very
serious and potentially fatal,” said Dr. Ubada Alabrash, who treated the
victims at Reyhanli hospital. “But we couldn’t identify what the chemical was.”
In Saraqeb and in an earlier attack
on April 13 where white powder was dispersed in a Kurdish suburb of Aleppo, the
civilian victims were displaying similar symptoms: dizziness, vomiting,
headaches and breathing problems.
Also, based on photos and videos
uploaded to YouTube — and catalogued by independent blogger and weapons
monitor, Eliot Higgins — the spent munitions or canisters witnesses said
disseminated the chemicals appeared to be virtually identical.
MORE FROM GLOBALPOST: Complete
Coverage from Inside Syria. http://www.globalpost.com/series/inside-syria
“It appears to be a very strong
match to the remnants of devices that were supposedly used in an earlier attack
in Sheikh Maghsoud, Aleppo,” Higgins writes of the canisters left behind in
Saraqeb on his blog, “Brown Moses.” His work tracking and identifying
weapons used in the Syrian conflict is cited widely by both rights groups and
international media.
“This leads me to believe the same
devices and chemical were used in both attacks,” he writes.
However, both weapons and medical
experts are urging caution.
While the same agent could have been
used in both attacks, it could have been tear gas or some other kind of
generated smoke, normally used for riot control, some weapons experts said.
The telltale sign of a sarin gas attack
is myosis, or constricting of the pupils, and fasciculations, the medical term
for tremors. While GlobalPost confirmed that some of the victims in the April
13 attack suffered from tremors, it was unable to confirm any of them had
myosis.
MORE FROM GLOBALPOST: UN clarifies statement, says 'no
conclusive findings' on chemical weapons in Syria . http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/130506/un-investigating-commission-says-no-conclusive-findin
While three people were killed in
the attack in Aleppo and another person died from the attack on Saraqeb, the
majority of victims recovered after just several days.
In Aleppo, the doctors who treated
the patients also later suffered similar symptoms to the victims. In Reyahanli,
the medics reportedly wore protective suits.
“My effects were mild, but one
doctor had to be admitted to the ICU,” said Dr. Kawa Hassan of the Avreen
Hospital that admitted the 22 victims of the attack in Aleppo.
When the patients began to arrive on
April 13, Dr. Hassan said he was scared not only for himself but for the entire
country.
“If he begins a chemical war, he
will kill us all,” he said.
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