More on the Alleged Chlorine attack of 25 March, 2017

Re-Considering the IIT's Nine Unsolved CW Cases
More on the Alleged Chlorine attack of 25 March, 2017
November 27, 2019
rough, incomplete
updates to ...Dec. 5

Note: this is my second and far better post on this alleged chlorine attack on a cave hospital in Al-Latamnah, Hama, but was originally half-written as part of this post regarding the alleged sarin attack in the same town the day before.

Comparison with Douma, 2018
OPCW FFM report S/1636/2018, 13 July 2018 https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1636-2018_e_.pdf
1.9 The alleged incident of 25 March was widely reported in the media as targeting an area where an operating field hospital was located and in which one “barrel” cylinder fell inside the main entrance hall of the hospital and a doctor lost his life.
/5.44 "...Due to the impact, the head of the cylinder cracked releasing a gas inside the hospital. The gas was described by witnesses as yellow, with a pungent and irritating smell, and since the hospital was carved inside a rock formation, the gas was rapidly dispersed in the rooms of the cave."
5.45 "The signs and symptoms reported by the casualties shortly after the dispersion of the gas include shortness of breath, moderate to severe cough, mucosal membrane irritation, blurred vision, lacrimation, expectoration, and vomiting. People located close to the entrance escaped immediately through the emergency exit."

But when the same kind of chlorine cylinder is said crash into an apartment building in Douma, on 7 April, 2018, and where the OPCW was able to verify no sarin or anything was added to the chlorine, the given story was far different. As we heard, the 50-60 people in the basement 3 floors below the impact were chased out by the sinking gas, ran up to the street, then back inside and up, into the denser gas, then dropped dead or paalyzed. And thus 35+ people died - or close to 200 by a strangely credible alternate tally. Here at the Latamnah hospital, it spreads horizontally, through a space of unclear size, but limited by how much carving they did. People react more normally, by reports, all fleeing the gas to fresh air, with no one blacking out or dropping dead on the way. And so all staff and patients lived, except those involved in that dubious alleged surgery. These were said to require rescue, which would be abnormal, but then we hear they died only the way to the hospital or later in the day, or never - none of them instantly. Neither story is truly plausible, but vis-a-vis the effects of chlorine, the hospital incident is far more realistic.

Narrative discrepancies
One vs. four chlorine cylinders:
S/1636 explains one cylinder crashed into the hospital entrance, and three others landed in various spots, including one about 50 meters to the northwest of the hospital entrance.

But to Human Rights Watch for their "death by chemicals" report, Dr. Mahmoud al-Mohammad, the manager of the hospital] said "A helicopter dropped two barrels. … One barrel with explosives fell about fifty meters from the hospital, the other hit the roof of the hospital.[18]" Two other bombs of whatever kind might also have been dropped and he didn't know about it, but we seem to have a disagreement on the one at 50 meters.

WH Hazmat: "Two barrels of chlorine gas" were dropped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiIMFG1uU

Attack time:
A Syria Direct report heard it happened "at 1:30pm" citing "Abadah al-Mansour, the hospital’s spokesman"
HRW report: "around 3 p.m."
The OPCW FFM's S/1636: "at about 15:00."

Visually, shadows are fairly long and from near due west, in the few WH photos published. Just before DST kicks in, this should probably be around 3 PM or later, not close to 1:30. But it's impossible to say from the pictures what has happened before and how long it took. Sometimes the outside view is the one that got hushed up because it was a clue to the reality of events.

One assistant wounded, or two? Again the spokesman to Syria Direct has the outside view ...

To the extent providing a photo of a cylinder impact counts as a narrative detail, a certain White Helmets guy seems to have the outside view on how many chlorine cylinders crashed inside the hospital. ...

Symptoms
S/1636, 5.45 The signs and symptoms reported by the casualties shortly after the dispersion of the gas include shortness of breath, moderate to severe cough, mucosal membrane irritation, lacrimation - all good. Less consistent, blurred vision, vomiting.

Syria Direct: "“most of the injured suffered from fainting, red eyes and shortness of breath”, the Hama Civil Defense reported." Chlorine does not make you pass out.

The Fatalities
Dr. Darwish died, and it was from chlorine, he'd have badly burned eyes, damaged lungs, pulmonary edema - he'd suffocate on fluids. Even with medical help, death can occur after hours or days of struggle and the best care available, if the initial damage was severe enough. I'm still not convinced that is what killed this man. His eyes look tired, but not reddened or swollen. Otherwise, it is hard to really say from just an image like this.

As for the other two reported to die - a first responder (not the treating nurse?) and the boy they operated on. HRW: "Dr. al-Mohammad, the hospital manager, said that the attack killed three people due to chlorine exposure: Dr. Ali Darwish, the hospital’s orthopedic surgeon who was conducting a surgery at the time of the attack, the patient in surgery, and one first responder," and "Abd al-Munaf Faraj al-Saleh, the head of Syria Civil Defense in al-Lataminah, confirmed that the attack killed three people." HRW heard the assistant lived but "was still receiving treatment in Turkey as of April 8."

But in the OPCW report, it says "The patient was anesthetised and intubated to protect the respiratory airway. ... According to accounts, the surgical patient was only mildly affected due to the previously mentioned airway protection. However, Dr. Darwish and his assistant were severely affected. ... Dr. Ali Darwish, the assistant, and the patient were rescued by the SCD and were also transported to MF-A ...Critical patients such as Dr. Ali Darwish and the assistant were immediately transferred to other hospitals. Dr. Ali Darwish died on the way to Medical Facility C (MF-C). The assistant was transferred to a hospital in a neighbouring country."

The likely boy victim by deduction: http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/186770#.Xd0SDndFyP8
Ayham Saedo Hamadeh age 13, Shepherd, from Lattamna, killed 3-25 by "shelling." (No deaths from chemicals are reported for this incident -
http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/details/martyrs/186769
"warplane shelling" cited for Dr. Darwish). Was Mr. Hamadeh tending his sheep when he was hit by a rocket or mortar shell, prior to dying in the chlorine attack?

As seen on Facebook, perhaps already dead, but among suffocating patients arrived in Turkey. Tubes still in, eyes look possibly swollen, but pretty unclear. What did they allegedly do for eye protection? Why was this surgery so goddamned important, allegedly?

We hear consistently that Dr. Ali al-Darwish was an orthopedic surgeon, so he worked with the musculoskeletal system by training. This is important work - sewing up injure arms and legs, feet and hands, and more. But it's generally not life-saving work. That's what he should have been doing, and we don't hear any different, though it's possible he was working past his expertise in something that was life-or-death. Otherwise - and even then - he exercised very poor judgment in continuing the procedure. Abadah al-Mansour, the hospital’s spokesman praised the selfless choice: “He refused to leave so he could save the patient ... He paid the price for that with his life." But he also paid with the life of the boy he was 'trying to save' from... an injury that was probably not life-threatening. That's not giving your lie to save one, it's taking it plus another through idiotic choices, besides leaving an assistant - or two, according to the spokesman - in critical condition. Well, they didn't assist Dr. Darwish very well by suggesting they leave and try the surgery later. Can you see the three of them standing there in the gas, eyes burning, barely able to see though the tears, coughing and choking, doubled over puking sometimes, but still fast at work with the scalpels and so on? It's absurd. In fact, the choice of these men to stay is so poor it's highly questionable it was ever made. There may be a true story of these deaths that remains concealed.

The boy might have suggested they leave, but he was reportedly "anesthetised and intubated to protect the respiratory airway," probably left unconscious and helpless. The likely victim, by deduction, listed at VDC: Ayham Saedo Hamadeh age 13, Shepherd, from Lattamna, killed 3-25 by "shelling." (No deaths from chemicals are reported for this incident - "warplane shelling" cited for Dr. Darwish). Was Mr. Hamadeh tending his sheep when he was hit by a rocket or mortar shell, prior to dying in the chlorine attack? So he was probably knocked out right away, and the grown-ups wanted them all to stay. Tehn, even when it got truly intolerable, they never did chose to leave - eventually it seems they passed out or foamed at the mouth or whatever nonsense, so the White Helmets had to go in and rescue them. "5.48 ... Dr. Ali Darwish, the assistant, and the patient were rescued by the SCD and were also transported to MF-A."

The first responder: not specified as a White Helmet, a "first responder" was also killed, as the FFM heard it. This is mysterious. It's not specified if he died from a first response (like from secondary contamination, as with sarin?) or just standing in the wrong place (no impact deaths mentioned) or stayed well past his first responding to slowly die in the hospital, maybe helping with that surgery or for some other unexplained reason. There's no clear match (perhaps no match at all) for this victim at the VDC listed for 25 March or the following two days (checking men from the area killed by 'warplane shelling" "shelling' or CW).

Jaysh al-Izza commander: The spokesman for this ruling militant group said, in the STEP News video related below, the "chlorine gas and other toxic substances" used at the hospital "led to the martyrdom of Dr. Ali Darwish and the military commander of Jaysh Al-Izza, Hamidou Lahdiri." A 25 March tweet also suggests he died from the gas, naming and showing two "martyrs, God willing: - Dr. Ali Darwish, and Abdul Hameed Al-Hudairi, both explained by "the regime's warplanes and Russia are bombing with poisonous gases. God is with us."

But other sources disagree. While most sources don't say how he died (just that he was a "hero" and "the finest Mujahid" and had Hamidou as a nickname), he's listed by VDC as Abd al-Hamid Ahmad al-Hdairi ( Arabic: عبد الحميد أحمد الحضيري), FSA, age 37, from Lattamna but killed in "North Hama countryside" by "shooting" done by Syrian armed forces. This sounds like an explicitly different story with a locale, but then "shooting" sometimes seems to be the generic cause of death for any "FSA" fighter where the cause is unknown or meant to be obscured. In a linked video he's seen dead, washed and wrapped for burial. There are no injuries from the neck up, which is all we see, and he has sort of purple lips. That moderate cyanosis probably means prolonged suffocation prior to death. Maybe he was shot in the lungs, or maybe he died like these others are saying, suffocating fom chemically damaged lungs.

It was a bit confusing to find another 37-year-old Hudairi man from Latamnah dying a week earlier: I thought HAMAH NOW on Mar 19, 2017 must have had a different name and an earlier death for this hero: "Mohammad Abdul Qader Al-Hudhairi, 37 years old, died from the city of Latamna due to ..." Shooting? Chlorine + mystery gas? It cuts off and the link is dead, and comes up nowhere else I found. But the VDC helps with a seperate listing for Mohammad Abd al-Qader al-Qasem al-Hdairi, 37, from Latamnah, killed by bombing over in Khan Sheikhoun on the 19th. A smiling young child is actually shown, with an older man's face (his?) half-cropped off, and looking different from the fighter's.

This would be quite a coincidence, and it may not be one; the VDC only lists 15 people of this name dying in the whole war (Arabic list, all but one hailing from Lattamna. Five of these were killed at once shelling, 19 Octber, 2016 with an Abdul Kareem al-Hadhiri family hit: this name appears on 4 children killed that day: khaled, 10 - another Khaled? age 5 - an infant girl Sundus - Ahmad, age 12 And a woman named Zamzam Hudairi died 4 days later Due to her wounds sustained by the shelling on 19-10-2016. No one else appears until these two 37-year-old men a week apart, and then just one more in 2017, one in 2019, end list. This might suggest some family targeting in two phases, but that could also be too imaginative.

Now, recalling the unexplained first responder - he could be a White Helmet in a van, like the one we see impacted and burned (below). But that appears to be a militant van and area, so maybe that's where "commander" Hudairi was? Maybe he was called a first responder because he was also a White Helmet (not that we hear) or just because that seemed like a passable story for the van impact near the hospital. Or perhaps the militant and responder are two distinct men who both died in this event, and had that poorly explained. That would make four deaths if so.

Sarin
Traces: f/c - or see here.

Hints: March 25: Shajul Islam seems to claim the attack this day (penetrating the cave hospital in Latamnah) was by chlorine, and by sarin, in the same tweet (in the video, he reported chlorine like most did, but the text claims sarin - via Qoppa999 shortcut). Then on the 26th he claimed "I am so unwell now. Not sure what it is. I have been treating so many patients from chemical attacks this week without any sort of protection for myself or others around me. We just don't have any." We knew of two chlorine attacks by this point, one of them on this day, and no sarin ones. Chlorine causes no secondary exposure, which he seems to be hinting at. He's more explicit with this Facebook post and video of the same day: "URGENT! We are getting so many patients with gas poisoning. This attack is from Al Lataminah in Northern Hama. This seems very toxic and has killed a doctor ( Ali Darwish) who was treating the patients. We have seen chlorine gas attacks, but this is not the same. The patients are dying very fast. We now strongly suspect its Sarin Gas. CAN YOU HELP US." (ACLOS)

A spokesman (or leader? unnamed?) of Jaish al-Izza (speaking in front of their logo) also said "chlorine gas and other toxic substances" were used. He also says "this is the first time they target the hospital with chemical gases of this type, toxic gases of a new type with chlorine," causing the death of Dr. Darwish and a fellow commander of Jaish al-Izza. He's not clear if this is the first time that possible sarin was used in the area, just the first time at the hospital. But he doesn't say anything to directly support the alleged sarin attack elsewhere in the same town just the day before that (and this would probably have effected fighters of the same group, so he'd hear about it).

Now, he doesn't specify this other chemical made the chlorine more deadly, but it's odd how a few people knew to specify something else when nothing else has been accepted as used, and yet sarin traces did turn up. It seems plan A was to claim sarin mixed in on the 25th, and a later plan B was to concoct an event the day before to explain its presence.

Mapping the 4 alleged impacts 
Impact #1 is the famous one of the four alleged impacts that pierced the roof and got inside the hospital. Here's the FFM's image to show how it fits on the satellite map. The actual location is on the west edge of Latamnah. (coordinates: 35.19.32N, 36.36.43E)

The impact they agree on is questionable but possible, depending. It would take a lot of force to penetrate a couple meters of soil - or more like one meter? - and then reinforced concrete. Dropped from a helicopter it might have enough force - also perhaps fired straight up from the ground, for a maximum fall back to the earth might do it, especially if it had extra weight added somehow... (this capability isn't proven, but is often suggested - they have some way or launching these things with a Hell Cannon of whatever). So it remains uncertin whether this is all from such an impact, and also just what that would mean.

(enhanced area and red lines to show possible rebar grid faintly visible)

(as seen from below - note beyond flash-illuminated concrete jumble are gaps of earth color, app. lit by natural sunlight)

5.59 The impact location of the hospital as indicated by witnesses are shown in Figure 13. The first cylinder (1) pierced the rooftop of the ER at the entrance of Ltamenah Hospital. The second cylinder, third cylinder, and fourth cylinder fell to the ground at the respective distances of approximately 50 meters northwest to the hospital, 200 meters east to the hospital, and 100 meters to 150 meters south to the hospital. Witnesses reported that vegetation appeared burnt for about 100 metres from the impact points."

Mapped out here, roughly: impacts 3 and 4 should be in or near those red circles, which are at other dug-in areas, likely connected to the same underground complex. This goes to suggest a regime bombing plan to punch gas into the ER, and flood the exits as well. And also to drop a bomb on a random spot a bit NW of the entrance - or perhaps at the other entrance, if they mean north...
FWIW 25 March wind rep. still or to the east. Darksky gave 4m/s to the west.

Impact 2 is important - no clear marks appear close to 50 MW of the hospital entrance, comparing Google Earth images from Feb. 20 and April 2 of 2017. The impact might be invisible or unclear from that level - the damage should be minimal if it were just a chlorine tank (recalling the hospital manager claimed an explosive bomb landed there). Larger craters further out predate the February image. It's claimed an explosive barrel and/or a chlorine cylinder landed around here, but visually it could be nothing did ...

"5.60 Based on the analysis of the digital evidence gathered by the FFM from different sources, including witnesses, the FFM could account for three cylinders and three craters/impact points. Three of the craters/impact points are shown in Figure 14." They aren't shown very well, but it's better than nothing.

As the hospital impact into the roof (1) is shown first (left)*, logically the others show … two of the other three, seemingly unspecified, but likely in numerical order. The second scene that witnessed some fire-like burning has a steep rise very nearby - a wall or a cliff - to cast that even shadow. This area might be dug into a cliff, perhaps north-facing. That could be impact 2 (if northwest meant north) … but that area is shown in a photo, and it doesn't look like any burned impact area is back there:

So impact 3 is even better suggested for that second image. If they're in order, the other would be impact 4, and the important impact 2 - that might be an explosive "barrel" that left no mark and/or was the spot people washed off sarin the day before (see below) - this is the one that couldn't be seen or clarified.

* this is debatable, but the debate is lame. This is a dep hole into dirt, a narrow section of gray stuff, and then open black space - the ER as more widely seen from below. In fact along the edges of the gray layer (the concrete) can be seen faint lighter sections at right angles to each other and to the visible building lip/outer wall there on the right. That's rebar, as a better quality image would prove.

Aaaand, FWIW, sorry - whatever the shown cylinder hit MIGHT have included rebar. That's worth something, but not a proof's prize. I don't even need to label what here looks like a sharp imprint of narrow-gauge metal rod, apparently after an impact with some earth had deformed the thing, flattening its impacting end. I'm NOT convinced this proves anything like the attack reported, but I have to acknowledge it suggests - at least - better-than-usual falsification of the evidence. I think that's the very couch in the entry they claim it came to rest on. Note also: brown liquid at lower left - this comes up in other cases and seems to be a real chlorine sign.

The other seen cylinder(s)
We hear of 4 alleged chlorine cylinder impacts, and see the important impact and cylinder fairly well, poor views of 2 other impacts, but little of the other cylinders. One that's clearly different was shown to HRW by WH member Abd al-Munaf Faraj al-Saleh as hitting the hospital on 25 March, as if it were THE cylinder in question (HRW wasn't sure, considered multiple cylinders likely, since it was reported). Strangely, it seems to be both inside a building and atop rubble it should have created. But by the distances cited and exterior impacts shown by the FFM, the other three should all have landed outdoors. we have to wonder where was this image taken? Is it misattributed? I've seen it before, but I don't recall if it was in a different context ...

It seems to have landed sideways like this to be so flattened, and its valve assembly is intact. There aren't any visible splits, but it might have released gas - the signs aren't clear to me one way or the other (possible brown residue).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm1g5fSfDUE
Step News footage via SNHR video shows two further cylinders - one to go with the burnt patch outside, and the other also outside, and not at the torn up crater the FFM showed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiIMFG1uU
Thiqa news agency video: the burnt cylinder? Hard to correlate any details, but logically there should only be one that was burnt - this is unusual. It seems that's because it crashed into this van parked just inside an entrance to a dug-in garage area, maybe while the engine was running, or whatever causes it to burst unto flames. Or someone deliberately burned it after the fact.

Seeing the widely distorted roof, the split of it on the near side, and the sharp dent in the window frame below that, it seems to me this thing came in - if it did - at a pretty sideways angle, not the nose-down position

Later, it would be pulled out, along with some identifiable parts - like the little wheels we've seen with its aerial harness, the main point of which is to make it come in nose-first.  That stuff would be  laid on the burnt ground, maybe after the van was towed away, or still parked nearby. Noting some mud atop the charring, this only makes sense. It was burnt, the moved to drop an end in the mud.

Above we noted the burnt patch was seen in the shade of a nearby wall, suggesting a dug-in area like this. Through the wreckage, we can see there's another cave on the perpendicular wall. Both walls are in the shade, at roughly mid-day, so neither faces south.

This almost has to be impact 4, at one of these two areas, as seen clearly in a Feb. 2017 image, then less so on 2 April. A week later, there's no clear sign of a wrecked van or a burnt patch, but they were probably in there somewhere.  The site of impact 3 seems to be just a quarry, with no signs of dug-in activity like this. Impact 2 was vague, but could be the dug-in area just north of impact 1. But in all views, that seems to have simple walls lacking cave entrances on all sides. Below: views from February and April, compared to the WH photo above, with the oblique wall stretched a bit: no sign of an entrance, but this is a bit fancy for a simple parking area and turnaround. Wall appearance with patching, etc. on the far face, topped with a straight, roof-like top, suggests there might be an egress here, that the people in that SAMS truck recently used.

We still have an apparent earth-impacting cylinder that's unplaced, and an impact with no cylinder also unplaced. We have enough seen to go with one exterior cylinder that's unplaced, now that #4 is roughly placed. We also have the 4th cylinder HRW showed, but it may not even fit in the accepted narrative. "The FFM could account for three cylinders and three craters/impact points," they explained, showing the 3 impact spots above. They seem to think only the one "pierced the rooftop" while "the second cylinder, third cylinder, and fourth cylinder fell to the ground at the respective distances" given and shown above. It sounds like they should all have landed outdoors. So the one WH Saleh showed - is this an unreported fifth cylinder while another remains unseen? Or is that the 4th cylinder? If so, we've never seen where it landed, just where it was set after they brought it inside someplace (why?) and happened to lay it on top of some rubble where something else crashed in or caused damage, besides the known damage at the entrance. Neither of those options makes a whole lot of sense.

Here's pretty much all of that in one graphic, plus a rough indication of where the sarin degradation products would appear. Here and forward I'll use cylinders A-D to describe those above, in the same order of appearance, to be clear that while cylinder 1 goes with impact 1, we don't know that 2 goes with 2 and so on. In fact there's no clear ordering for the cylinders by the FFM, and I think none shown past the one that's A here.

More Cylinder Oddities
This may all deserve its own post, but for now ...

Two further images of what I call cylinder C come from Aleppo Media Center (or an AMC) via Michael Kobs: https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1165157431829291009 - this is after it was removed, I think, and set on ground that was burnt in the same fire (next to the van that's never seen, under where it was after they towed it?) Some possible salvage fom the van in the upper middle looks like ammunition boxes. In the rubble: the cylinder, intact with a dented side, valve snapped off.

To the left AND the right are two little bars with tiny wheels - these look just like the wheel-axles seen after 2018 chlorine attacks, as in Douma (visuals below). Said to be part of the aerial harness that lets it be rolled from a helicopter and then to have its fins help orient the bomb to fall nose-first. AFAIK this harness isn't alleged in 2017 chlorine attacks. No signs of this appear with the other 3 cylinders linked to this event. But this might be seriously alleged. There's also some kind of bar with bolt-holes possibly related, maybe from the van. A large tubular object in the foreground should be from the van (rear door hydraulic thing?). A few lighter pieces could relate. Why does the one with such a possible contraption have to land in a vehicle and turn it all into a mixed junk pile? Strange, that … So total illusion remains pretty possible.

On the left, an almost conical metal object - I think this is deformation, not its original shape. The metal may be too heavy and iron-like to be from the most impacted parts of the van (roof, etc.). Is it possible that's one of the tailfins or another element of the aerial harness that's suggested here? The other AMC photo zooms in on this piece, finding it interesting. It is. Another metal fragment, perhaps larger, is set behind it. There may be bits of metal strips and a bar in there as well.

Absent clear fins or other unmistakable features, this implication isn't clear. But the question could be raised thusly: IF this was fitted with the harness and fins, dropped from a helicopter with all that time to get oriented right … why did it hit the van sideways, as I noted above the damage suggests? 
(image for that if it keeps seeming like a good question). Answer: it wasn't so dropped or so fitted. I scanned the apparent impact position inside the van. Some debris in  there, but not a single sign of the harness it would be in. Not one fin, wheel-axle, long or curved iron slat or anything to suggest such a device. So IF this is the same cylinder-impact and there are serious harness fragments with it later, they WERE planted.

Andrew links me to more imagery, photos on Facebook from Thiqa News Agency. Image 1 there shows cylinder A, image 6 shows cylinder D from its split-open nose-end, with odd blue material where the nozzle was. For shortage of views at lest, I'll this one here. The other images of 9 total show WH hazmat teams suiting up, some gear they use, and a lab they use for their own analysis? (all saved here if they vanish.)

But regarding those related remnants, possible ones … image 4 shows the damaged van a bit more clearly. Image 5 shows a new angle and clearer view on the cylinder inside. From this, Andrew notes the possible wheel-axis in there, and how it's in the prior view as well. Image 5 is what adds a lot.

Looking closer and letting out the seams to identify possible parts … and took a while to cut them out on a dimmed background. Between the two views I see what could be tailfin corners, and similar slats, but with holes bored in them, and some curved stuff down in the floorboard - maybe the rim of one of the rings around the harness? A partial slat seems connected to it, but otherwise  he numerous strips down the side (one of which the wheels connect to) may not appear. These maybes are marked in red. But the wheel-axle appears clearly enough, and with a short section of tube welded next to it in the middle. This is a unique feature, but here with a hole bored in it. So for now I'm undecided if there's any harness used here. But the wheel axle says with 95% certainty that's what they're saying.

Wheel-axle comparison: That's what they're saying, isn't it?

Side-things: 'conical object and other material seen from the other side, still unclear, in STEP/SNHR Testimonies video v=rm1g5fSfDUE. This has metadata I don't usually see on downloaded videos - April 2, 2017 7:33 AM. Between hi-res video and photo views in Thiqa video: cave entrance: rifles in one view then moved, a big white bin w/open lid. Chicken coop inside that cave? An intact propane cylinder is still inside the van, maybe related to the fire? Poss. shrapnel marks in the interior metal right behind it? And there's an area I'll geolocate in a bit just for good measure.

… (more forthcoming)


Other
26 March Testimonies video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiIMFG1uU
Michael Kobs nailed the geolocation. ... 99% certain lineup.
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200538315377778688
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/1200657075887431680
This is how we mapped it. Things lined up but seemed quite far away, and the angle of view was questionable.

Kobs nailed it, I thought, though it did look weird. Now I think Amin2511 nailed it, without the weirdness; the view faces north-northeast like I thought, and the matching features appear closer, more like they seem. The match for a pole on the red line is less clear; it may be close, small, and invisible from space. Orange house still has no certain match, but that's likely it.
https://twitter.com/amin251/status/1200894677353926657
https://twitter.com/amin251/status/1200915273706029056
https://twitter.com/amin251/status/1200986750853758976
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/1201061959275167744
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/1201070435875446784
The location may not matter, but after all this work ... there's the view lineup, and more importantly,
the details at the cave entrance that clarify the match.

This STILL puts it NOT at the stricken hospital - not that surprising as they say it was out of service, maybe not even the best place to meet for interviews. This view location also identifies a cave area we didn't know about before right in the middle of town. Here are the 3 locales in question on the map.

The video was uploaded on 26 March, probably shot earlier the same day. My download somehow has a date of 2 April, 2017 attached. That might be a clue or might not be. The content of what's said is of some interest, and a translation is pending included below.

From that, STEP News video's 2nd interviewee, a White Helmet who says "We are the northern countryside of Hama Latamna civil defense center 114" The Eastern Arabic number 114 is also seen on the flag behind the man interviewed in the other video. (Amin2511) So presumably, this centrally-located cave compound is "civil defense" center 114.

The exact White Helmets van seen here was also seen waiting to remove patients from the hospital the previous afternoon (top image at right). The man speaking is …(Saleh?) - likely this is his own boss man's van, so he headed up the rescue of those somewhat implausible vicitms and also handles this interview. On he door in red: perhaps "no weapons" ? That does sound like a special kind of WH ride.

As Kobs notes, the same man is also a leading face in the hazmat crew after the 30 March incident. (Combined images in tweet below)

Video Translations: Amin2511 crunched the consonants once again.

The geolocated 26 March interview, 2 speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiIMFG1uU

In the name of God the Merciful: The city of Latamna was targeted with chlorine gas on 25/03/2017 at three o'clock except quarter (2:45?) two barrels of chlorine gas targeted the field hospital, from a helicopter that took off from Hama Military Airport, headed north targeting the field hospital. Civil defense teams responded to the incident and evacuated more than 30 cases from the hospital. Three people were killed, including an (alternate?) doctor. The hospital was completely discontinued (put out of service) and one of the vehicles was burned. We noticed symptoms on civilians: redness in the eyes, fainting, vomiting, (foam) out of the mouth, difficulty breathing.

Yesterday the Al-Latamina field hospital was exposed to a chlorine gas raid that resulted in suffocation of medical staff and patients. Doctor Ali Darwish from the hospital staff was martyred. Here the strike place of the barrel of chlorine gas exploded in the heart of the hospital, inside the hospital.






STEP news video, 2 speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_4rGKGuTc4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm1g5fSfDUE

Jaish al-Izza spokesman? (that's their logo)
On March 25, 2017, the surgical hospital in the city of Latamna was targeted with chlorine gas and other toxic substances. This led to the martyrdom of Dr. Ali Darwish and the military commander in Jaish al-Izza, Hamidou Lahdiri. This is the first time they target the hospital with chemical gases of this type, toxic gases of a new type with chlorine.

In the name of God the Merciful: We are the northern countryside of Hama Latamna civil defense center 114. The city of Latamna is being bombed by Russian warplanes and regime airplanes
Yesterday, the regime's helicopter gunship targeted the Latamneh field hospital and took it out of service. This resulted in suffocation. About 50 injuries, suffocation, fainting and the death of Dr. Ali Dwaish (Darwish). One civilian died in the hospital. We transferred the injured to Kafr Zita Surgical Hospital and there were cases transferred to Bab El Hawa



Related
Hospital Mapping
An effort at visually mapping the hospital interior from video, by Michael Kobs
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200331781200896006
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200332117407928320
rev https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200506914767036416

And the exterior
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200332117407928320

and the entryway with cylinder impact
https://twitter.com/MichaKobs/status/1200321483966468096

Hospital founders:
UC Berkely HRLab report translates a sign inside the entrance using rebel colors to declare “alLataminah Surgical Hospital - created and founded by Jaysh al-Ezza.” Google translate gives "army of pride" as the meaning of "جيش العزة"
https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/hama_report-_final_190111.pdf

ACLOS: "A video cited below on the March 30 attack, declares that's the third chlorine attack in recent days, explaining "On Sunday, March 26, 2017, a medical official at the Al-Latamneh hospital told Smart that a number of civilians, including women and children, and fighters of the Izz al-Din al-Azza of the Free Army had been suffocated following the helicopter's flight for the second day in a row. Contains "chlorine gas poison". The first time was March 25, as addressed above. There's no other supporting claim for a March 26 incident.
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Alleged_Chemical_Attacks,_March_25-April_3,_2017#March_26.2C_Latamnah

Jaysh Al-Izza, Wikipedia - "Union of Glory" - it doesn't specify in the sidebar if they're Islamist or what, but a senior commander was disgraced football star Abdelbaset al-Sarout from Homs, an Islamist involved in sectarian massacre marketing from late 2011, who's been a media darling and only considered joining Islamic State. But he sided with Al-Namechange Front instead, the good cop half of the Al-Qaeda presence in Syria, and stayed so until he was killed in June, 2019 (WP for him).

Mr. Sarout and/or his associates are likely to be involved in staging these CW events on March-April, 2017, probably in conjunction with al-Nusra. They might also be subjected to attacks by their erstwhile allies. As explained above, Jaysh al-Izza claims one of their commanders, Hudairi, was killed along with Dr. Darwish in the 25 March attack.

Do they run the base in the south of town said to be gassed on the 24th and the 30th? Will try to find out. They may run a large base just south of the cave hospital. Running some 300 meters, it has several entrances, if maybe none for vehicles (or the doors close to look like cliff walls?). but a lot for foot traffic. It runs wide and deep, with apparent ventilation shafts hacked into the limestone (blue boxes here). We don't see this at the hospital, and it as noted they had poor ventilation - especially relative to the militants down the road? From Feb. 2017 Google Earth images:

Sources:

My first post: https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2017/03/syria-chlorine-allegations-march-25.html

ACLOS wiki page on this and other incidents in the surrounding days and area: http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Alleged_Chemical_Attacks,_March_25-April_3,_2017#March_25.2C_Latamnah

OPCW FFM report S/1636/2018, 13 July 2018 https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1636-2018_e_.pdf

Hosp. post-attack video:
https://twitter.com/MajidMajidy_1/status/866735036472713216
https://twitter.com/alihamed2016/status/847176627582849025

Syria Direct report
http://syriadirect.org/news/surgeon-killed-dozens-injured-in-suspected-north-hama-%E2%80%98chlorine-gas%E2%80%99-attack/

https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/hama_report-_final_190111.pdf
CHEMICAL STRIKES ON AL-LATAMINAH MARCH 25 & 30, 2017
by students at the UC Berkeley Human Rights Investigations Lab (“HRC Lab”), so sharper than high-school kids by a bit. (got hospital location wrong, but everyone did)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HY3ySGtrgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm1g5fSfDUE
Hama- al Latamina: testimonies on regime shelling using poison gases on latamina Hospital 25 3 2017 - 1:38, good cylinder views

Sneaking in Sarin Allegations: 24 March, 2017

Re-Considering the IIT's Nine Unsolved CW Cases
Nov, 16, 2019
Extremely rough ...
edits to... Nov 27

A post in progress to sort out some neglected-by-me details of the intertwined chemical attacks alleged in Latamnah, Hama on 24 and 25 March, 2017.

March 25 appeared as the first chemical attack of the year, coming as a chlorine attack as in recent years, not the red-line-crossing and war-threatening nerve agent sarin. That was not even expected to resurface after Assad seemingly gave up on it in 2013 and stuck to killing with chlorine since then. So 25 March was no huge news in that regard, but a good introduction as it killed a doctor and two others.

Within a week or so we heard of another attack in Latamnah involving sarin (30 March), and then the famous attack in nearby Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April, with both chlorine and sarin first reported, sarin confirmed, and thought related to the 80+ civilian fatalities, and so used to justify U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria.

For a while the only other attack that year seemed to be on 22 March or earlier, by Islamist forces as they overran several towns near Hama, including Khattab; their occupation videos from there feature an un-noted chlorine cylinder, laying just outside the gates of what seems to be the abandoned city hall. It appears distorted as if recently deployed as a weapon - like, by the Islamists as part of their takeover - but not fired especially high to try and mimic a helicopter drop. This probably shows their regular tactical use of the weapon as opposed to their use of it in the propaganda war.

Anyway, yeah .. the chlorine-sarin confusion thing in 2017. These alleged events at the start seem to be at the crux of it.

This post had included a review of the 25 March incident it's intertwined with. But this was too wieldy and got moved here for my second and far better post on that alleged attack. What stays is just what's needed from 25 March, aside from its sarin findings, to explain this late-appearing allegation.

A Decried Attack on 25 March
OPCW FFM report S/1636/2018, 13 July 2018 https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1636-2018_e_.pdf
1.9 The alleged incident of 25 March was widely reported in the media as targeting an area where an operating field hospital was located and in which one “barrel” cylinder fell inside the main entrance hall of the hospital and a doctor lost his life.
1.10 The FFM determined that chlorine was released from cylinders through mechanical impact. The FFM concluded that chlorine was very likely used as a chemical weapon at Ltamenah Hospital and the surrounding area on 25 March 2017.

4 chlorine cylinders, everyone escapes except the Dr. Ali Darwish, the patient he was performing surgery on, and somehow one "first responder." One or two medical assistants were badly affected but lived.
Questionable story given the injury was probably not life-threatening, and even if it was and was that urgent, the medicas dying along with him doesn't help. It's possible the trained medical professionals did all agree to this fateful course of action, but it seems far more possible that this story was simply invented to replace a true story someone didn't want us knowing.

A Secret (?) Attack on 24 March
March 25: Shajul Islam seems to claim the attack this day (penetrating the cave hospital in Latamnah) was by chlorine, and by sarin, in the same tweet (in the video, he reported chlorine like most did, but the text claims sarin - via Qoppa999 shortcut). Then on the 26th he claimed "I am so unwell now. Not sure what it is. I have been treating so many patients from chemical attacks this week without any sort of protection for myself or others around me. We just don't have any." We knew of two chlorine attacks by this point, one of them on this day, and no sarin ones. Chlorine causes no secondary exposure, which he seems to be hinting at. He's more explicit with this Facebook post and video of the same day: "URGENT! We are getting so many patients with gas poisoning. This attack is from Al Lataminah in Northern Hama. This seems very toxic and has killed a doctor ( Ali Darwish) who was treating the patients. We have seen chlorine gas attacks, but this is not the same. The patients are dying very fast. We now strongly suspect its Sarin Gas. CAN YOU HELP US." (ACLOS)

That might have been some kind of a strangely limited hint of an event that no one explicitly reported at the time - the actual first CW attack of the year (that would be blamed on Assad), and it revived the long-dormant sarin weapon! A week earlier than we otherwise heard. How on earth do you forget to mention that, even after the chlorine attack you DO report the next day, and the second sarin attack a week later, and the big deadly sarin attack nearby two weeks later? The terrorist-linked Shajul Islam MIGHT hint at it, and no one else even does that? It's like a made-up event, but perhaps made up early, and either kept quiet or just not agreed on at the time...

Only in mid-June of 2018, over a year later, did any explicit and public word surface of an even earlier incident in Latamnah. On 13 June, an OPCW report got to make news by announcing that chlorine was confirmed in the 25 March incident we knew about, and sarin was used in an attack the day before even "Dr. Islam" didn't seem to hear about at the time. "OPCW Confirms Use of Sarin and Chlorine in Ltamenah, Syria, on 24 and 25 March 2017." The report explaining it is S/1636/2018 - direct PDF link: https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1636-2018_e_.pdf

Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins agrees no one heard of it at the time or before the 2018 report: "Unlike the March 25th 2017 chlorine attack, the Sarin attack on March 24th in Al-Lataminah went unnoticed, so the OPCW FFM report is the first information we have about that attack." (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/06/13/opcw-fact-finding-mission-confirms-sarin-chlorine-use-syria/) He takes no issue with this fact - it must be, you know, fog of war and stuff. And no one died. But then no one died on the 30th, and they reported THAT - second try at a pre-Khan Sheikhoun sarin prelude? Was there a problem with the first try? If so, can we deduce what it might be?

As reported, it was a 5:45 am jet attack, firing a non-chlorine CW weapon, then a conventional explosive, hitting the same basic farmland south of town hit in later attacks. There were no fatalities or serious poisonings mentioned, but "up to 30 casualties" in two groups: First was people from "two families who were sleeping in caves in the southern residential area of Ltamenah" - the kind of strange thing people allegedly do in this wartime situation - and then "several men located in the agricultural land outside the city, close to the first impact point." Early-rising farmers? Fighters sleeping in their cave compound there? It is noted the area was "arable farmland where armed groups were stationed. A small number of agricultural workers were also present in the area at the time," and the ones affected are … "several men" (higher than "a small number"?)

Symptoms reported were most consistent with nerve agent exposure, but somewhat vague. S/1636, point 5.22 "All casualties are reported to have presented with shortness of breath, miosis, cough, oral hypersecretion, and perceived agitation. There were no reported skin, pulmonary, or vital sign abnormalities. All cases are described as being mild presentations and patients were discharged within 24 hours." Also, "one member of the medical treating staff who was interviewed also reported secondary contamination."
Witnesses describe no smell at the crater, and close inspection led to itching but no death. Inside they say was a strange substance: seen up-close, it was first a bubbling, water-like liquid, and days later reported as black but still bubbling.
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Alleged_Chemical_Attacks,_March_25-April_3,_2017#March_24.2C_Latamnah

Alleged impact area, in relation to those reported with the sarin attack a week later:

Can we see a possible strategy here? That significance and more was duly noted by Higgins at Bellingcat:

This location is particularly interesting as it is just to the west of an opposition tunnel system previously identified through open sources after the Russian Ministry of Defence posted videos of airstrikes on the location in 2015. In each of the three videos, the Russian MoD falsely claimed that ISIS was being bombed when ISIS was not in the area at the time, and in one case, wrongly claimed the location was in Raqqa ...

This site is just north of the site hit during the March 30th 2017 Sarin attack 6 days later, and also documented in the OPCW FFM’s earlier report on the March 30th attack. It appears likely that the March 30th Sarin attack was another attempt to attack the tunnel complex targeted on March 24th, as no other obvious targets are in the area ... 

... It seems clear the OPCW FFM is trying to draw a connection between the Sarin used in all three attacks, Sarin they would know has been linked to the Syrian government, even if they don’t state it explicitly. It should be kept in mind the OPCW FFM is not tasked with assigning blame for chemical attacks in Syria, so they would not be expected to explicitly state such a connection, so this appears to be as close as the OPCW FFM can come to blaming the Syrian government for those three attacks.

They often lean as far as possible in that direction, never the other way. And it's often based on faulty evidence or readings. Munition fragments said to be recovered, but never shown - possible M-4000 remnants waiting in the wings? ...

Higgins tweeted that this "rather undermines the narrative of CW Truthers … why do a false flag, with Sarin, if you don't tell anyone?" (new answer Nov. 23, and short form tweeted w/visual aid) Here's a better question: why would they have it happen for real but not mention it, and even imply it didn't happen? Because the issue people raise is NOT that they staged a silent false-flag but that NOTHING happened or was even made-up AT THAT TIME. Only later did someone decide it would be useful if they HAD said that, but lacking a time machine ... they had to make it up then, probably about the same time OPCW came asking why there were sarin traces in the samples from the 25 March chlorine attack. After this prior incident became a known thing, they could explain it was from people washing off there the day before.

Sarin traces after 10 months
24 March - samples 5.33 Based on information supplied during interviews, including witness testimony and supporting media files, the FFM identified potentially relevant munition parts and arranged for their collection by an NGO. As a result further environmental samples, including remnants of alleged munition parts, were received by the FFM team on 19 February 2018." When these were gathered is less clear - implicitly following interviews in mid-2017, with a strangely long delay somewhere so the samples were only received about ten months after the alleged incident. Testing date unclear except it's noted - unusually - that considering other high-stakes investigations, they "were not analysed immediately"

With the incidents on 3-24, 3-30, and 4-4, OPCW brags about the matching chemicals - about a dozen sarin-related ones in each case, including:
active Sarin, DIMP, Hexamine, Pyro, IMPA, DIPP, DIPF, HFP, EIMP, IPMPA, TPP, MPA, TEA*, iPPF, DBP - regardless of when they were taken - a few days to 313 days. Clearly this raises the likelihood the 24 March samples were exposed to sarin far later than it's claimed - like a few weeks prior to the belated handover.

* (TEA = Triethanolamine, perhaps the wrong acronym - Wikipedia says "abbr. as TEOA or TELA to distinguish it from TEA which is for triethylamine") - no clear link to sarin, but Another source … Triethanolamine is used for making some CWs - "nitrogen mustards" at least - perhaps also in this method of producing sarin. OPCW lists it as a precursor under schedule 3. It has a bunch of random industrial uses and little danger of its own.)

Sarin traces after a chlorine attack
For the 25 March incident, "The FFM received environmental samples and metal objects on 10 and 12 April 2017" and just one further listed item on 19 February 2018 ("Wooden piece from the bottom rail of the Operation Room door in Latamneh hospital" - dates are built into the "evidence no."). So we have samples primarily from 16-18 days after the event at the latest, perhaps gathered right afterwards. The time of testing is unclear. Two labs were called on, apparently focused on different chemicals and using different methods. They both turned up some TNT residue, and various chlorinated compounds.

It wasn't a sarin attack, so it's unsurprising no active sarin turned up. But it might have been surprising when the results came back from this chlorine attack and sarin degradation products turned up widely. DIMP - and that one alone - turned up in soil, water, and mud next to cylinder 1 (inside the hospital) and by cylinder 2, which landed 50 meters away to the northwest. Soil next to the 1st barrel DIMP in a "2,2,2" form. DIMP was also found on Dr. Darwish's clothes, a blanket and surgical tools from the OR, and on first responder clothing including a White Helmets jacket. 50-150m from the hospital, some DIMP items also contained Isopropyl methylphosphonate (IPMPA). No other degradation products come up, except perhaps Triethanolamine - possible precursor, therefore ingredient and by-product. In the
samples from 24 March, this product appeared in 2 spots: on someone's shirt (05SDS), and on Dr. Darwish's shirt (02SDS), and nowhere else.

At cylinder 2 - said to land 50 meters northwest of the hospital, the area (not the cylinder) tested for DIMP, perhaps more strongly than anywhere else - lab 2 finds DIMP everywhere, lab 1 only with mud and water next to cylinder 2 (or in the table "2nd barrel") plus Soil 50m away from it (in what direction?), paper and concrete 50 m from 1st impact (in what direction?) and on "Surgical tools from the operation room." 12 other samples have DIMP found by lab 2 and not lab 1, so the few where they both see it probably have higher levels of the stuff.

Maybe a smaller amounts break down more quickly so the first product (IMPA, as the cited OPCW report says) has vanished, making way for mainly DIMP, IPMPA (which is the second step, and a later one? and where shirts are involved, maybe leaving a precursor.? Small amounts would seem good, given that ZERO sarin release was mentioned (past a debatable mumble) at the time and over the next year.

And therefore a 24 March attack?
Discussing the 25 March chlorine attack, S/1636 states:
"6.6 Also, with respect to the same alleged incident, analysis results from samples showed the presence of elevated levels of chloride. The FFM further notes the presence of chemicals that may be related to sarin. In the absence of information to the contrary, the FFM does not attribute the presence of these chemicals to this alleged incident, but instead determines their presence as being related to the very likely use of sarin the day before, and the decontamination of patients at this location."
And that incident became a known thing when? It was never reported anywhere at the time or over the following weeks or months...

"4.9 The FFM held its first interview on 10 April 2017, concerning an alleged incident in the area of Ltamenah on 25 March 2017. Throughout the interviews, including those relating to Ltamenah on 30 March 2017 and Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017, additional allegations were raised by the interviewees. These included allegations of an incident on 24 March (in Ltamenah, Khattab, and Qomhane) ..." First - 3 incidents in a day? And one is in Khattab? See above on the attack there's evidence for, predating the 24th by at least a day … did they claim the same cylinder, or something else? I'd like to see the details on that someday. Qomhane, no information … Anyway, 24 April was of interest. It came up somewhere in the span of interviews, perhaps as early as the first ones, or maybe later. So the first word to anyone of an attack that day, that would be claimed to involve sarin, came - at the earliest - right along with the samples that would show those otherwise troubling sarin traces. Otherwise, it came later yet, and not before those traces were set to become known. And this discovery of an unknown sarin attack led, as the OPCW report relates, to a search for supporting evidence:

"5.33 Based on information supplied during interviews, including witness testimony and supporting media files, the FFM identified potentially relevant munition parts and arranged for their collection by an NGO. As a result further environmental samples, including remnants of alleged munition parts, were received by the FFM team on 19 February 2018."

The cited "media" means there was video or photos, but they were not published anywhere that anyone has found.

5.12: "Witnesses estimated up to 30 casualties, including women, men, and children." But in 5.20 it says "At approximately 06:00, casualties began arriving from a residential area in Ltamenah via civilian vehicles. The physician reported treating 16 civilians at the hospital. No hospital admission or treatment records were available at the time of the interviews and details such as age distribution and gender were not available." The tables with details refer to 16, so probably the same referred to here, with the other half of about 30 not having enough symptoms to bother with. Or - as noted above - 15 casualties were hospital staff, of 33 total: the would mean just 18 outside patients: the first 16 and then 2 more in the second batch? All 16 cases were considered mild, and everyone was released within 24 hours.

Astute reader Andrew had already noted, initially in this comment at Tim Hayward's blog, the odd similarities with the victims on 24 March and 30 March, as reported. Table number 6 in each of two reports happens to be where the details are: 16 'mild' cases on 24 March vs. 10 'moderate' 6 'severe' and no mild on the 30th, per report S/1548-2017 (direct PDF link). This plus the difference in breathing issues (dyspnea, cough with 16 vs. 0) suggesting these are two different groups, but otherwise it says each attack produced a set of exactly 16 agitated, drooling sarin patients with pinpoint pupils who both lacked other symptoms, and varied just in effects on the airway.

However sarin causes a paralysis sort of dyspnea, and fluid-edema that can be fatal, and the impurities in the kind used in Syria are caustic (besides yellow and having a strange, decay-like smell), known to cause irritation of the eyes and the airways, coughing etc. It's similar to chlorine, and that should appear in both cases. At 0:55 in this video, a doctor explains how 30 March patients suffered from "breathing problems, cough, (bronchial) secretions, eye irritation" besides the described neurological symptoms including "odd behavior." (sarin tends to paralyze, causing NO behavior, FWIW). So that was in there too, but then you might drop it if you didn't want the two sets to look like the one recycled set it was... you might drop those symptoms from 16 right to zero, and arbitrarily upgrade all 16 mild cases - if you really wanted it to look different. (of course, inventing a whole different set would be smarter, but maybe that proved too tricky - I don't know the details of what they need to report to convince the investigators.)

The records for 24 March to prove it's a distinct event with its own patients - somehow destroyed (?) by the chlorine cylinder's impact the following day. Were they etched is sand right the impact point? 5.31 "The FFM requested hospital documentation from medical staff. However, due to damage sustained to the medical facility on 25 March 2017, it was not possible to provide these records and documentation. This would have allowed cross-checking and corroboration of information gathered from witness statements during interviews."

Strange then: Doctor Abdullah a-Darweesh, the director of the Hama Health Directorate, said following the attack on the 25th "The hospital is currently out of service, “not because it has been physically damaged,” said Darweesh, “but because the medical staff has been injured.” The records for the 24th were also injured? Melted in the gas amid the non-damage and lack of fires? http://syriadirect.org/news/surgeon-killed-dozens-injured-in-suspected-north-hama-%E2%80%98chlorine-gas%E2%80%99-attack/
Still no lacrymation (excessive tears) mentioned - it was mentioned for the 25th with just chlorine, and it's on the table there for 30 March with zero cases - but that's the L in sarin's known "SLUDGE syndrome," one of the most common indicators, here present in 0 of 16 - or 0 out of 32 - reported cases. They got the S (salivation), but none of the others. Other common signs lacking in mention: Headache is reported along with dizziness for 24 March, not for the 30th. Vision problems (blurred or darkened) are mentioned in neither case. The common weakness/fatigue/paralysis, nausea/vomiting, and others like profuse sweating also fail to come up at all.

All that could mean, in one or both cases:
- anomalous sarin exposure, or
- real exposure to something similar in effect but different, or
- a badly-researched set of fake symptoms to suggest sarin.

Human Rights Watch quotes a doctor from the same hospital that supposedly treated the victims on March 24. In their report they quote a Dr. Mahmoud al-Mohamad about March 30:
“we didn’t know what it was”
https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/01/death-chemicals/syrian-governments-widespread-and-systematic-use-chemical-weapons
Idlib Health Directorate video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huhn-4Zbe1c&feature=youtu.be&t=227
Two doctors and a patient agree chlorine cases were known recently, but whatever they saw on the 30th was different and new. "These cases are new and problematic to us" a week after they allegedly handled just such an attack. The one doctor is Dr. Mohamed - perhaps the same cited by HRW and others as the hospital's director. The other says the chlorine caused more neurological effects, while this sarin just makes people cough mostly, but it's kinda the same and kinda different (really that confused, or did he just misspeak?)... A local in there as a patient agrees it was the first time they had been “attacked with poisonous gases by this type of warplanes,” as opposed to the usual chlorine, and usually by helicopter. Note 5.9 “the sound of a plane” cited with 24 March launch of sarin bomb (props to Andrew)

Some standing questions 
1) Why did no one clearly report an apparent sarin attack with so much evidence behind it, at that time or through intensive reporting on follow-on attacks over the next two weeks? Can that really be oversight in so many cases? Why would there be a hush order about it? What else but it not quite existing could explain the general silence? And why of all people was terrorist-linked "Dr." Shajul Islam the only one to break that general pattern with his strangely prophetic non-sequiturs?

2) Did active sarin dispersed on 24 March really come up in a soil sample, in tests run "not immediately" after Feb. 19, 2018? And while active sarin was gone from a fragment of metal, did that  really have so many byproducts, including the first one, IMPA, some ten months or more after the fact?

3) Was Dr. Darwish wearing the same, unwashed scrubs from the 24th when he died on the 25th? Allegedly, cross-contamination from helping people silently on the 24th came up after he died the next day following a chlorine attack and had his shirt from that day handed over as evidence. It reportedly had readable traces - DIMP and the strange "TEA" - still on it.

4) OK, fabric is porous, maybe traces remained after a washing, but … were they using the same unwashed surgical tools from the day before? Those are usually made of surgical steel, should rarely get scratched or porous to any degree, and professionals usually steam sanitize them every night. They are not a place you expect to find residues from earlier in the week. But some of these too turned up DIMP after the 25th, in fact strongly enough even lab 1 picked up on it.

5) Why was DIMP found 50 meters from the hospital if it only got there secondarily by patients? 50 meters not being that far, were people in the silent sarin attack washed off just where cylinder 2 would land the next day, so as to have water and mud next to it tested for DIMP, perhaps more strongly than anywhere else? Was that a coincidence, an effort to send some message, or to erase the sarin signs? Is this the same spot the hospital director claims a regular explosive bomb impacted instead? All answers to this line of questioning are strange.

6) and past is even likely, once I solicit some other thoughts, etc.

Related Issues
Hasna's story (copied over, to be re-written)
Monitor Mahmoud Hasna might have helped sneak in this 24 March sarin attack - it seemed then he was conflating the incidents of 25 and 30 March, but maybe it's 30, 25, AND 24 March?
http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2017/09/monitor-mahmoud-unravels-quds1-sarin.html

"one of the warplanes that took off this morning" (fidgets with a knob on a device) "is the same as the one that carried out an attack about a week ago on a hospital in the northern Hama countryside, killing a doctor and causing many injuries. It was the same warplane. So I thought that the plane might be carrying chemical substances. We started sending out notifications, assuming the planes were headed to attack the front lines."
As for his prior mission ... Al-Hasna sems to conflate two preceding attacks - March 25, on a cave hospital in Latamnah vs. March 30 in the same town. These will be considered in a little detail below, as they tie in with the Khan Sheikhoun attack to interesting effect. He also might be conflating jets: the SNHR heard the same confusion of attacks, but also explains:
"Mahmoud told us that he was surprised by the warplanes that took off from al Shayrat Air-base  at  such  an  early  time,  considering  that  he  monitored  the  warplane  with  the  symbol  Quds-6 taking off at a similar time before in late-March and targeting a hospital in Hama  suburbs with poison gases at that time."
SNHR report: "[Al-Hasna] monitored  the  warplane  with  the  symbol  Quds-6 taking off at a similar time before in late-March and targeting a hospital in Hama suburbs with poison gases at that time." That's a similar time to the 6:26 takeoff on April 4. A jet at dawn means this attack, not the hospital one, done in the afternoon with a helicopter.
he put 3-25's victims with 3-30's attack details for a single fictional event "about a week ago." Or at least, that's the fairest presumption.
It's not encouraging that he should be this vague about events so central to his important hunch. Does he know these local and recent events, or not?