At least 40 people were killed and at least 1,000 were suffocated after a chemical attack on Douma, the last rebel-held area in Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, reported on April 7.

Photos posted by the White Helmets on several of their social media channels showed dead bodies of men, women, and children in a dark room. The group said entire families had been suffocated in basements after bombs were dropped by Syrian aircraft.

Multiple videos shared by Douma Revolution, a Douma-based Facebook account that shares news and videos about the war, showed similar scenes of dead bodies inside a building, as well as footage of people being treated for injuries caused by what the account also said were chemical weapons.

An unnamed Syrian official issued a statement through the state-run news agency SANA that did not explicitly deny a chemical attack occurred, but that denied the allegation that Syrian forces were responsible. The source blamed the incident on Jaysh al-Islam, the militant rebel group currently fighting pro-regime forces over control of Douma, describing it as an “open and failed attempt to obstruct the army’s progress.”

A day beforehand, on April 6, Russia’s state-run news agency TASS cited Major-General Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian peace and reconciliation center in Syria, as claiming Jaysh al-Islam was planning to carry out false-flag chemical attacks against civilians in areas under their control. He reportedly said they would blame pro-government forces for the attack for propaganda purposes.

Following the attack on April 7, TASS published a report echoing SANA. Credit: Syrian Civil Defence via Storyful