‘Death was everywhere’: Syria’s chemical weapon victims share their trauma
Al Jazeera
Since Bashar al-Assad’s fall, Syria’s chemical weapon victims have recounted their trauma without fear of reprisal.
Eastern Ghouta, Syria – Amina Habya was still awake when she heard screaming outside her window in Zamalka, Ghouta, on the night of August 21, 2013.
The regime of Bashar al-Assad had just fired rockets filled with sarin gas at Zamalka, and people were shouting: “Chemical weapon attack! Chemical weapon attack!”
She quickly soaked a towel in water and put it over her nose as she ran up to the fifth – and highest – floor of her building with her daughters and sons-in-law.
Because chemicals are typically heavier than air, Habya was aware the upper levels of buildings may be less contaminated.
They were safe, but Habya later discovered that her husband and son, who weren’t home, and her daughter-in-law and two children, who were asleep, had all suffocated to death.
