Damascus, Syria
CNN
—
People in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus always thought something strange was happening at the nearby state security facility. Walled off and heavily guarded, the government compound was off limits to anyone but the regime forces.
So when Islamist rebels toppled Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, locals rushed to see the site for themselves. Inside, they found what appears to be a secret laboratory full of potentially toxic substances that could be used to make illicit drugs or chemical weapons, and what appeared to be an explosives workshop.
Visiting the site last month with the Syrian Civil Defense, the volunteer non-governmental organization also known as the White Helmets, CNN witnessed first-hand the hazmat team’s chemical agent detectors repeatedly going off, indicating the presence of toxic materials.
CNN shared photos and videos of the facility with independent experts. They said this was clearly a chemical lab, probably one used for research rather than production.
The White Helmets and the experts said that more investigation was needed to establish what exactly was going on at the center. This includes specialized testing of samples and a thorough inspection of the site and documents found.
The Assad regime was accused by the United States and others of involvement in illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking. A video allegedly showing evidence of a large-scale production of the highly addictive drug captagon has emerged since the regime collapsed.
At the same time, experts and international monitoring groups have long said the former government had used chemical agents in attacks against its own people and was manufacturing chemical weapons despite signing a treaty that prohibits them. The UN said there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the nerve agent sarin was used in Syria in 2013.
Farouq Habib, the deputy general manager of the White Helmets, told CNN that he believed the facility was a research lab connected to the Assad regime’s chemical weapons programs, although the group said it could not confirm this until more specialized testing has been done.
“The regime claimed many years ago that it had disposed all its chemical weapons, but we knew that (it) kept using them,” he told CNN, leafing through documents found at the site.
“But it was shocking how the previous regime used all these government institutions as multi-purpose facilities,” he said, adding that while the site in Damascus was officially a State Security branch, it housed laboratories, chemical materials, improvised explosive devices and a small mortar shells factory.
Habib said that, together with the samples the team collected at the site, the paperwork found there will provide more insight into what was going on at the lab.
Several documents seen by CNN at the site discussed the handling of toxic materials, while one, which has not been verified, suggested there was communication between the facility’s command and the Russian military.
The hazmat team’s detectors – which could give false positive readings – were signaling the presence of toxic industrial chemicals, such as chlorine or ammonia, and lewisite, a blistering agent.
Elsewhere in the sprawling compound that consisted of several multistory buildings with basements and smaller workshop and office structures, as well as what appeared to be a dorm for the staff stationed there, CNN saw signs that improvised weapons, including barrel bombs, were being made. There was a smelting workshop with piles of projectiles, pipe bomb components, boxes of C-4 and stacks of mortar shells and antitank tubes that had explosive loads removed from them.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons and biosecurity expert, said that the site didn’t look like a production facility for wholesale chemical weapons – which he said Syria was accused of running – but more like a research site.
Removing explosives from mortars and replacing them with chemicals is a common way of manufacturing a chemical weapon, according to de Bretton-Gordon, the former commanding officer of the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Battalion.
Dangerous mission
The White Helmets were called in by the local Druze leader, who said a pharmacist from the community raised the alarm about the potentially toxic materials stored at the Jaramana facility.
Like many other government buildings, it was looted after regime forces withdrew. Windows were smashed and electrical wires, and anything else of value, were taken out.
The Druze leader told CNN his main concern was the risk the facility could pose to local people, especially if it was to be compromised further.
There are concerns that Syria’s suspected stockpiles of dangerous chemical weapons, considered illegal under international law, to fall into the wrong hands, which is why the White Helmets are racing through the country trying to find and secure these sites.
Habib told CNN the White Helmets had been focusing on finding secret prisons where the Assad regime held and tortured opposition activists when they were contacted by concerned residents.
“We were receiving calls regularly from the civilians in the neighborhood who feel very scared and worried, and they want us to get rid of these materials as soon as possible,” he said.
But securing the site and the chemicals it contains is an extremely dangerous mission. Volunteers were dressed head-to-toe in protective gear. But with shattered glass covering the floor of the building, they had to be extremely careful, as even a small tear in the hazmat suit could be fatal.
The White Helmets volunteers have trained for these types of missions. Several from the team who inspected this site in Damascus have also been involved in responding to chemical attacks against civilians, often at a huge personal risk as the group was systematically persecuted by the Assad regime in the past.
They worked through the afternoon and evening, not stopping even when their alarms went off indicating high levels of contamination inside a wet, cockroach infested basement.
They did not finish until well past midnight, moving most of the chemicals to a secure location to prevent any further contamination and risk to the local population.
The next day, they buried the materials in an undisclosed remote location in the desert, where they will remain until they can be disposed of safely. This mission was done – but there was no rest for the team.
Habib said his team was determined to keep searching for sites like the one in Jaramana.
“These agents, if we don’t preserve them and dispose them soon, they may get into wrong hands and may be used elsewhere against Syrian people or others. This is a global threat against humanity,” he said.
“We should be united all together to put an end to this.”