Road Impact

 Ghouta Firing Directions: Road Impact

September 16, 2021

rough, incomplete

Amazingly enough, we now have a TENTH identified and NINTH geolocated Volcano rocket impact, a ninth visual trajectory estimate - if not very specific - made possible (it's only consistent with the rest).

On a whim I did an Arabic-language search on Youtube for Ghouta/Zamalka chemical missile yesterday, just in case I'd missed anything. I had missed a few things now found ... most of them at one long-inactive channel: فرسان الغوطة  (Fursan al-Ghouta, Knights of Ghouta). Their video uploads include several of Aug. 21 CW victims, perhaps all unseen by me - some about missing people, etc., a long, detailed video from the site of impact "wall 2," starting from inside the courtyard, and this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bft8Wen9_aY

شاهد عيان يروي ماحصل لمدينة زملكا جراء قصفها بالكيماوي

(An eyewitness tells what happened to the city of Zamalka as a result of its chemical bombardment )

Posted August 31, 2013, 12 views when I found it. The verbal content didn't seem that relevant to the forensics (per Amin), so we'll skip that for now anyway and focus on the visuals. There's a second video in the same vein (link) with a local in a spot, and that spot too may be of interest because this one was. 

It's not explained why this guy is sermonizing right here, but I think it's related to the filled-in crater in the road, with a little cylindrical item (the Volcano possible fuze-rod item?) laid atop the fill. 

There's a faint splash pattern of black across the road and some meters down it, with a more discrete center never fully visible (thus hard to interpret). There's also a discrete band of dark crumbles to the north and off the road's edge, and a long black smear a bit east - likely all related to the rocket hitting here from a largely westerly origin, then being dragged aside to leak the rest of its mysterious oily black liquid. 

This is my effort to isolate all black stuff visible between dudes as seen in the major west-facing view, combined in spatial proportion in one enhanced view, dudes/invisible parts cut-out, filled in bluish, and some white strokes to help connect the stray bit on the left and give some idea how it spreads roughly towards the camera.

The spot is quite well shown, with 360-degree views presented. Judging by basic scenery details and sunlight, this is an early afternoon video at the northeast corner of a certain larger building. It's the easternmost in a cluster of three such buildings of narrow shape running roughly north-south. With a few other scene ideas, like a dozed earth area and open field to the north, I tried comparing to previously mapped alleged impacts, first LCC1/HRW1 (see revised map at bottom of this post). There was no clear match right there or immediately nearby, so next LCC7/HRW8 looked promising. Not right there, but about 100m north of it, was a cluster of 3 sizeable buildings and everything around them popped out over and over. 

Correlating a bunch of features seen in all directions, some quite specific (orange place, tower, rooftop circle), clarifies this is the spot. I wound up using the same colors twice, sorry. E.g. pink = both the building to the west and the east side of the building we're at. A mosque just to the north with attached buildings visible was later destroyed, absent in the latest views. Earthen mound marked with yellow circle and approximate impact crater in the pavement marked with a red star.

...

Next place past over from that distinct orange seemed unclear, with rounded shapes, was left unmarked. Then I noticed according to a rare pin and photo on Google Earth, that is "Zamalka archaeological bath" - how's that for specific? 

Therefore, this red star added on the map of previous findings:

Trajectory estimate: so far it looks rather non-specific - kind of up the road from the west, with mixed clues as to north-south angle; there's some good spread visible to north, but south isn't all visible, and there probably should be more spread that way. To fit with the rest of our findings, it would have to have flown in from the northwest, almost over that mosque, or something like a 45 degree angle with this road that isn't even east-west but angling a bit to to the southwest. The crater shape and the splash pattern, unclear as they are, only seem consistent with that. I'll try to come back to this, to see if more can be said.