U.N. report on Syrian gas attacks released

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Monday September 16, 2013 · 11:55 AM PDT

2013/09/16 · 11:55

This will be brief but decided to post this as it has yet to be reported here. The report confirms the use of Sarin gas in the Aug. 21 attacks but does not assign blame, which was not the investigation's mandate. Coverage of the reports can be found at The Atlantic Wire and Slate. Notable information includes the recovery of munitions samples showing cyrillic lettering and a surprisingly large warhead capacity of about 56 liters. The report also includes projected trajectories from two impact sites. In Moadamiyah, the rockets appear to have come from a heading of ~ 35 degrees (roughly the northeast) while in Zamalka/Ein Tarma they came from a bearing of 285 degrees (roughly W/NW.) From the Whitehouse map of the attacks, the point(s) of origin appear to correspond to regime held territory.

The overall conclusion is that Sarin gas was used on a relatively large scale on Aug. 21 and was delivered via surface-to-surface rocket munitions. The facts supporting this conclusion include:

remains of munitions tested positive for Sarin
the environment near impact sites was contaminated by Sarin
interviews given by survivors and healthcare workers
number of patients diagnosed as intoxicated by an organophosphorous compound
blood and urine samples tested positive for Sarin and Sarin signatures

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