What Happened a Little Ways from Douma in November, 2012?

The First Bodies Tossed Across Obama's "Red Line" in Syria, Part 4:
What Happened a Little Ways from Douma in November, 2012?
By Adam Larson aka Caustic Logic,
February 13, 2017
(incomplete)

(...intro red line issue again, gap before this) - then November, two alleged chemical incidents are recorded, quietly - no news at the time, but later claims say each attack killed one child, and apparently no one else. Each child was listed as from a displaced family, both listed as hailing from the suburb of Douma. That's quite interesting, but it's about all we know, except one important visual detail to solidify the questions. Below: how we know this, what it means, and what that visual clue means in context.

Background: Why a little ways from Douma?

    From an unclear time in 2011 and into 2012, a group called Liwa al-Islam ("District of Islam," later to become Jaish al-Islam, or "Army of Islam") was growing in power. - headed by the late Zahran Alloush, a Saudi-backed Islamist son of a Saudi-based exiled cleric, freed from prison is 2011 to mollify protesters. He was reportedly swiftly armed ... by Saudi Arabia. Liwa al-Islam (LiA) took firm hold over their base area of Douma, at the latest, by the summer of 2012, when they orchestrated a bomb assassination of top military officials nearby in Damascus. This earned them much prestige, more recruits and funding, and so LiA started expanding further. 

    Zahran Alloush was, and his group remains, Islamic extremists. Alloush at least, before he was killed in a December, 2015 air strike, was publicly avowed to eliminate Shi'ites, Alawites, or people of Persian (Iranian) ethnicity from their parts of Syria. They're also not keen on government fighters or supporters,  secular-minded Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Druze, or Atheists. 

Some people would leave Douma under this leadership, and thus become "displaced," or IDPs (internally displaced people - like refugees but without crossing into another country). They might move into Damascus proper, or might try just moving a town or two over and hoping for the best.

    At some point, LiA or allies expanded into each of the  surrounding areas of East Ghouta - Harasta, Jobar, Autaya, etc.  In some cases, they may catch up with people who had fled them in Douma. What happens then?

    So, here's the map that makes me bright this up. The incidents in question (red) happened in Bahariya, 14 km SE of Douma (November 17, to IDPs from Douma) and Rihan, 4 km east of Douma (November 23, to IDPs from Douma). Harasta is in purple - for future precedent, an IDP family from there lost a baby and no one else in the next alleged "Assad" CW attack in the area, Otaybah, on March 19 (but six men also died - see part 1). The IDP babies dying in alleged chemical attacks seems to be quite a regional specialty.

November 17, Bahariya

    Again, no one reported this at the time, but the VDC records a chemical attack from the air that left one boy dead, in the Damascus suburbs, on November 17, 2012. They seem to have noted it at the time, and thought it was a first, but otherwise it went unmentioned.

    This come in the form of a single martyr entry for Odai Haroun, a boy of about 10 (by the photo - age not given). He's listed as from Douma, but with a "martyrdom location" of Damascus Suburbs: Bahariah. The notes explain "he was martyred after suffocating due to poisonous chemical gas dropped from the regime's warplanes on Al-Bahariya town in what appears to be the first time such thing happens". Cause of death: other. After this I guess the VDC created the category for toxic gasses.

    I dug around for reports, using that spelling and the Arabic spelling, and apparently no one reported this to any media at the time. I found nothing except an entry in another opposition database, Syrian Shuhada. This cites the VDC but gives an age of 10 (they seem to offer rounded off guessed ages including 10, 4, etc. - it's not unique info, and matches my own guesstimate.) The notes here, auto-translated, say "You will see the status of suffocation as a result of toxic gases that have been dumped on the town of Al-Bahariyah Damascus countryside."

    Actually, what you'll see, in the blurry photo or video still the VDC provides ... He does appear have died of suffocation, gasping for air but finally failing. But he has no chemical signs, like cyanosis, for example (a blue/purple color shift in the skin). There aren't always evident signs, but ... if one scans for blue skin, one will find it. But it's not the right shade, nor at the right place to be cyanosis. Rather, it seems to form a sort of fresh bruise-colored band around his throat, about the size and shape of two thumbs meeting, to squeeze his windpipe closed.  Poor displaced Odai may well have been manually strangled, perhaps by the Islamists his family had fled in Douma. 

    Side-note: Bahariya would be the site of at least one actual chemical attack, in August, 2013. Right after the Ghouta incident, rebels in the area felt compelled - besides able - to launch at least three serious chemical attacks on Syrian soldiers fighting to reclaim East Ghouta. In Jobar and Ashrafiyah Sahnaya, on the 24th and 25th, they were hit with sarin, but none died. On the 22nd in Bahariya, they were hit with a blue irritant gas, not sarin, and no one died then either.  (see...)

November 23, Rihan

    A week later on November 23, the VDC records, a baby girl, Fatma Mohammad Shalhoub, died in the town of Rihan. There are no images this time. The notes specify "she was reported on 10-5-2013," and indeed, the number is far higher, so added later. Odai was #43,577, and Fatima was #79,338, six months and 36,000 entries later. 

    Continuing, the notes say "she was martyred after her family flee to Rihan area, she is one month old , according the doctor reason of death is the cold, or Inhalation of chemical gases as a result of the bombing. reports to be validated." They allege there was an attack, which might be what killed her and apparently no one else, and it was also cold. It says Date of death: 2012-11-23, so she didn't die after an extended illness, but on that same day. And the VDC's bet is on "Cause of Death: Chemical and toxic gases."     

    Again, I could find no news reports about her or an incident involving Rihan at this time. I didn't look everywhere, just a quick search. I checked Syrian Shuhada, but if they have her added, I couldn't find it. The name search doesn't work anymore. The very large family names list includes a "Shlhob" family from Damascus Countryside (which must be it), with a total of 12 members killed and listed. But the list as linked won't come up. 

Some likely relevant VDC martyr entries named Shalhoub in this early span: 
July 29, 2011 an engineer 'fell' from a roof and had 'regime thugs' throw stones at him, in Douma. This was not an Islamist murder of a man thought to be gay, for example.

2012 6-23 18-year old Tareq Fares Shalhoub was executed in Douma when his home wars raided - they smashed his hand, perhaps cut his throat, and rebels soon had the dead body (video).

Some Shalhoubs are listed as rebels, fighting with "FSA" - one of interest 2012-11-17 a rebel from Damascus Suburbs, Rehebei northeast of Damascus, shot in Daraa - a week before Fatima died. That's probably an unrelated coincidence.


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