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DeirEzzor24 exclusive:
Last week, the International Coalition safely destroyed large stores of mustard gas in Al-Raqqa province in eastern Syria. Five years after the defeat of Daesh organization in Al-Raqqa, Daesh war remnants had continued to threaten the lives of tens of thousands of civilians there. However, high-level sources from the anti-Daesh Global Coalition in Syria and Iraq revealed that the Coalition managed to discover these stores in 2020 and secure them until they could be safely disposed of. According to DeirEzzor24 private sources, the quantities of mustard gas left behind by Daesh in Al-Raqqa were destroyed on 12 February 2022 by expert Coalition chemists using 2250 kg of C4.
Mustard gas is a highly dangerous chemical, and one of the lethal weapons employed by the Assad regime and Daesh. It is an orange liquid compound that emits a vapor that can smell like garlic or onions, or can even be odorless. If a person is exposed to the gas, he can suffer from burns, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and blindness. Exposure also leads to serious chronic illnesses, such as cancer, or can cause death.
An international humanitarian organization specializes in humanitarian projects and mine removal in war-affected countries across the world, and has been operating in Syria for the past four years. DeirEzzor24 managed to obtain exclusive information from the organization confirming that they discovered quantities of the gas in Al-Raqqa while it was removing landmines. The organization immediately informed the Coalition command about the unidentified gas, later known to be mustard gas, and its exact location.
DeirEzzor24, in turn, communicated with several Coalition officials to follow up on the stores of mustard gas and the methods employed to safely remove them from the city without harming the local population.
Coalition sources confirmed that the quantities of gas were confirmed to be mustard gas that Daesh had attempted to use in their battles against the SDF during the battle of Al-Raqqa. However, Daesh did not succeed in using it because of the intense Coalition airstrikes.
Daesh has used mustard gas to tragic end before. One such example was in an attack on the armed factions of the Syrian opposition in Marea in the countryside, resulting in the injury of at least 20 people, according to the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
A source clarified to DeirEzzor24 that the gas was stored by Daesh inside mortar shells with the capacity to severely harm many civilians, indicating that the number of the shells which were diffused reached nearly 300 shells (200mm-108mm mortar shells).
According to the same source, if the shells had been used, it would have caused a severe humanitarian crisis in Al-Raqqa city. Fortunately, the Coalition and its chemist experts managed to safely remove the gas and transport it to the desert of Al-Raqqa to avoid tragedy and protect the lives of civilians.
