Afrin: Syrians in the country’s rebel-held north on Monday marked the 10-year anniversary of chemical attacks that killed over 1,400 people near Damascus, one of the conflict’s many horrors that went unpunished.
“I was in such shock. I smelt death,” said paramedic Mohammed Sleiman from Zamalka in Eastern Ghouta, who lost five members of his family that day.
On August 21, 2013, regime forces attacked Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiyet Al-Sham, rebel-held areas outside the capital.
The opposition accused the regime of using toxic gas in the attacks, which killed around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children.
The government denied the allegations.
Speaking from the northern city of Afrin, held by pro-Turkish rebels, Sleiman recalled rushing to the scene after hearing news of the attack.
He wrapped his face with a piece of cloth to protect himself from the gas.
“I found a large number of people hurt or dead. It was like the apocalypse. The scene was indescribable,” the 40-year-old told AFP ahead of the anniversary.
When he went back to his family home, he found it empty. With his brother, he went to look for them at a nearby medical facility.
“I found my father and all the neighbors, all of them just with numbers, no names. I remember my father was number 95. I identified the bodies of the people I knew,” he said.
Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011 after the government’s repression of peaceful demonstrations escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.
The war has killed more than half a million people and forced around half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
Sleiman later learned that his other brother, his sister-in-law and their two children had also been killed in the attack.
“We dug a communal grave for hundreds of people and buried them close together,” he said.
“When I tell the story, I can see it all in front of me as if it was now,” he said, adding that he was receiving psychological counselling because of the trauma.
Activists in 2013 posted dozens of amateur videos on YouTube said to show the effects of the attack, including footage of dozens of corpses, many of them children, outstretched on the ground.
Other images showed unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth and doctors apparently giving them oxygen to help them breathe.
The scenes provoked revulsion and condemnation around the globe.
A UN report later said there was clear evidence sarin gas was used.
Despite insisting the use of chemical weapons was a red line, then US president Barack Obama held back on retaliatory strikes, instead reaching a deal with Russia on the dismantlement of Syria’s chemical arsenal under UN supervision.
Eastern Ghouta returned to regime control in 2018.
Survivors and activist gathered at several sites in Syria’s opposition-held north and northwest Syria on Sunday to mark the anniversary.
At a commemoration in Afrin, survivors shared their stories while young children put on a small performance, re-enacting the horror.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed in 2013 to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) global watchdog and give up all chemical weapons.
The OPCW has since blamed Assad’s regime for a series of chemical attacks during Syria’s civil war.
Syria’s OPCW voting rights were suspended in 2021, in an unprecedented rebuke following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.
“We are not organizing this event in order to remember the massacre, as it is always on our minds,” said Mohammed Dahleh, a survivor from Zamalka who helped organize the Afrin commemoration.
“We are reminding the world... of its failure to support justice and rights,” he said.
“We will continue to insist on the need to hold Bashar Assad accountable.”
‘Apocalypse’: 10 years on, Syrians recall chemical attack
https://arab.news/b9nt3
‘Apocalypse’: 10 years on, Syrians recall chemical attack
- The opposition accused the regime of using toxic gas in the attacks, which killed around 1,400 people, including more than 400 children
- Survivors and activists gathered at several sites in Syria’s opposition-held north and northwest Syria on Sunday to mark the anniversary
Aoun reassures Lebanon that risk of war is ‘fading’ in year-end message
- Israeli military spokesperson said it targeted 380 armed operatives, 950 military sites in Lebanon in past year
- Beirut’s southern suburb residents pledge to avoid celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday sought to reassure citizens in his year-end address, saying “the overall atmosphere remains positive and the risk of war is fading,” amid widespread concern over a possible Israeli escalation against Hezbollah.
Fear of renewed attacks followed Israeli criticism of a Lebanese Army weapons-confiscation operation that is set to enter its second phase at the start of the 2026. The plan include the expansion from areas north of the Litani River to the Awali River, after the first phase was completed south of the Litani.
President Aoun cautioned that this does not mean “completely eliminating the risk of war,” stressing that “work is underway with various friendly and brotherly countries to completely neutralize the threat of war.”
Addressing Internal Security officials, Aoun said that the “situation is among the best,” noting that this assessment has been echoed by foreign visitors to Lebanon, despite the strain caused by large numbers of Syrian and Palestinian refugees.
He added that security forces were fully carrying out their duties and solving crimes with notable speed, pointing to the successful visit of Pope Leo XIV earlier this year as further evidence of progress.
On Monday, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa stressed during a Beirut press conference that implementing “international agreements and resolutions, foremost among them the Nov. 27, 2014 agreement and Resolution 1701, constitutes the fundamental approach to sparing Lebanon further security tensions,” speaking of “dire consequences that could result from continued escalation.”
The Egyptian diplomat indicated that “there are no hidden warnings or threats directed at Lebanon, but rather a clear commitment to the agreements signed by the concerned parties, which must be fully implemented by everyone.”
The ambassador stated that his country, under the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, is “exerting intensive efforts to reduce tensions in southern Lebanon and the region in general, through active diplomatic contacts led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty with relevant regional and international parties.”
Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adraee published on Wednesday a summary of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2025.
“The Army targeted approximately 380 armed operatives, including Ali Tabatabai (chief of staff), Hassan Kamal (responsible for anti-tank missiles on the southern front), Abbas Hassan Karky (logistics officer in the southern command), and Khodr Saeed Hashem (commander of the naval force in the Radwan Unit),” he said.
“It also attacked approximately 950 military targets, including 210 launch sites and weapons depots, 140 military buildings, and about 60 tunnel entrances,” Adraee added.
In the statement, he accused Hezbollah of committing about 1,920 ceasefire violations and said the military would continue its raids and targeting operations in the new year.
UNIFIL Com. Gen. Diodato Abagnara said in his end-of-the-year message that “UNIFIL will continue to support Lebanon and Israel in implementing their obligations under Resolution 1701, building on the stability achieved in 2025 and strengthening efforts toward a lasting peace.”
As part of the weapons restriction plan, on Tuesday, the Fatah movement — the Palestinian National Security Forces in Lebanon — handed over a new batch of heavy and medium weapons from the Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp to the Lebanese Army in four trucks, away from the media.
This is the second batch of weapons to be handed over from the camp, which is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It represents the fifth phase of the Palestinian weapons handover process in the camps, four of which were completed between Aug. 21 and Sept. 13, 2025, encompassing nine camps, including Ain Al-Hilweh.
The handover follows and implements an agreement reached between Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the latter’s visit to Lebanon in May.
Abbas had announced “the Palestinian Authority’s support for the Lebanese state’s plan to extend its authority over all Lebanese territory, including the Palestinian camps.”
Hamas continues to refuse to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese Army, while Hezbollah maintains its weapons north of the Litani River.
The Lebanese Army implemented “exceptional security measures in various Lebanese regions on New Year’s Eve, with the aim of maintaining security.”
It called on citizens to “cooperate with the security measures taken to maintain public safety and prevent incidents,” warning of the consequences of firing weapons, which will be prosecuted as it poses a threat to public safety.
In another measure, authorities announced that gun licenses and traffic permits will be suspended until Jan. 2, 2026.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, residents signed a pledge as part of an Internal Security Forces campaign against celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve, committing not to fire weapons in public and to report violations with photos or videos.
