by Martin Odoni

Hopefully everyone recalls in early-April last year that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was accused of launching a chemical weapons attack against the city of Douma, as part of the Syrian Civil War. An airstrike by bombers of the Syrian Air Force on the city threw up clouds of smoke and dust that triggered an apparent allergic response in the local population on the ground. Photographs and video of those affected went around the world, including of children choking and foaming at the mouth, and were taken as evidence that there had been chlorine gas in the warheads.

However, early investigation by Robert Fisk of the Independent, when he arrived in Douma a few days later, raised severe doubts about the use of chemical weapons in the attack. Conversations with local medical professionals led him to conclude that the supposed ‘allergic reaction’ was probably not…