Syrian war: The boy at the centre of conflicting tales about alleged Douma chemical attack

Depending on who you believe, 11-year-old Hassan Diab is the victim of a chemical gas attack ordered by Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime, or: he's an unwitting pawn in a fabrication by rebel forces who deliberately staged the attack as a "provocation".

Either way, the Syrian boy has become the face of a broader story about war propaganda: initially portrayed by the West as a victim, he's since become the face of Russia's claims that the chemical attack was a fiction.

Hassan is the boy filmed at a hospital in Douma late on April 7, with apparent symptoms from being gassed with chlorine or the nerve agent sarin.

He is seen rubbing his eyes as he stands alongside other patients, who appear distressed, unconscious or seriously ill.

Syrian opposition groups, including the White Helmets, told Western media that scores of people died in the attack — many in the basement of an apartment building.

But Russia and Syria have gone to extraordinary lengths to try to prove the chemical attack never happened, and that photos and video posted online were deliberately staged.

'Witnesses' flown to Europe

Russia and Syria on Thursday flew Hassan and 15 other Syrians to Europe, to support their claims there was no chemical attack on Douma on April 7.

These "witnesses" appeared at a press conference in The Hague organised by Russia's Ambassador to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — the same agency that has sent a team of weapons inspectors to Douma to investigate evidence of a chemical attack.

The 11-year-old boy told assembled media that he was with his mother in the basement of a building in Douma when they were suddenly told to rush to the hospital.

"They started pouring water on me at the hospital. I don't know why," he said.

The boy's statement replicates a similar account he gave to Russian state television in Syria last week. In a report on Russia Today his father said it was water that caused his son to rub his eyes.

"I was very surprised and asked what had happened, why my son's eyes were red. I found out that it was water, but it was cold," his father said.

"He could have got sick, he was undressed."

Russia's Ambassador to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, has defended bringing the boy to The Hague.

"Little Hassan is an eyewitness … he's telling the truth," he said.

"After this briefing, no one would have a shadow of a doubt who distributes fake news and who is waging an information war."

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has told Britain's ITV network that children from Douma were treated for sand inhalation rather than poison gas.

"There are no obvious injuries," he said.

"I believe what our doctors, who were there in the hospital at that minute, were saying. They did not see any dead person."

But Britain says Russia's claims are a despicable theatrical stunt by Russia.

The US and its allies say the authenticity of information on the alleged attack is unassailable. In a statement, they said:

"Medical NGOs have found traces of chemical agents on the victims.

"Photographs and videos, numerous and mutually reinforcing, have been authenticated.

"The symptoms of more than 500 patients who presented on the same day of the attack in health care facilities undoubtedly corresponded to gas intoxication."

Hospital 'actors'

A separate report on the state-owned Russia 24 channel accuses the White Helmets, a civilian rescue group, of fabricating the evidence of a chemical attack, including actors to fake the footage of victims, and claims that Hassan Diab was coerced into taking part.

"It's all acting, they pour water on him and shake him," the reporter said.

The boy is filmed returning to the hospital with the Russian reporter, who finds "the props are still there".

"They used this hose to water me, and then they sat me on this couch," the boy said.

Hassan Diab's father tells Russia 24 that his son had no symptoms of poisoning and there was no chemical weapon.

"I found my family in the hospital. The militants gave dates, cookies and rice to all the participants and let everyone go home," he said.

"My child was perfectly fine."

Medical staff also tell the reporter that the attack was staged.

"No victims affected by toxic agents were admitted to our hospital on April 7," one medic said.

"Yes there were people who began to water themselves with a hose, but there were no appropriate symptoms."

Hospital staff blamed a conventional bombing for dust and smoke that caused breathing problems.

But a French government report presents a raft of evidence that "several lethal chemical attacks" took place, and that France assesses "with a high degree of confidence that they were carried out by the Syrian regime".

A US-based investigative website, The Intercept, also reveals that the Russia 24 interview with Hassan Diab and his father were almost certainly filmed at a Syrian army base in Damascus, "where Russian military advisers were present".

Fake footage

The Russia 24 report accuses Syrian rebels of deliberately staging and filming a fake chemical attack.

It includes footage of actors playing the part of victims, and an interview with a man, identified as a leader of the militant group Jaish al Islam, apparently admitting to the ruse.

"We put them on the ground, splashed water on them and made them look like chemical attack victims," the man says.

"We needed to make people look like they were really ill, not just pretending; it had to be really convincing. It took us about five to seven takes to get that done."

But The Intercept reveals that the Russian report has taken the pictures from a 2016 feature film shot in Damascus, that even Chinese media had reported as "a drama based on real events".

Similar allegations are made on Russia's state television channel Russia-1, where scenes from Syrian feature film Revolution Man — also of a staged chemical attack — were presented on the Vesti news program as proof that the White Helmets are involved in fakery.

British investigative website Bellingcat claims the vision was taken straight off the Facebook page for the film, and suggested either "extreme incompetence by the Vesti production team, or a purposeful attempt to deceive the audience".

"This report is yet another obvious example of images being misrepresented to attack the White Helmets by the Russian media and the supporters of the Syrian and Russian governments, and one that can be easily debunked with even rudimentary research," the Bellingcat article said.

Gas canister

A French government report prepared in the days after the attack found evidence of chlorine gas in the area where around 15 people died in the alleged attack.

The British investigative website Bellingcat reveals photographs and other evidence that purport to show the canister was dropped in the same location that gas victims were found.

It argues too that Syrian government helicopters — identified as having dropped similar chlorine cylinders in previous attacks — were seen heading towards Douma 30 minutes before the alleged attack.

But a report on state-run Russia Today television challenged reports in Western media that the canister contained toxic gas.

A man in a gas mask — apparently filmed soon after the alleged chemical attack — is seen standing next to the canister, even as it was "still fuming".

But Russia Today ran an interview with a US chemical expert who questions the authenticity of the video.

"If that were a nerve agent, whether he's got his face covered or not, it's going to go right through his skin," says James Tour from the Rice University in Texas.

"The only protection he could have is if his whole body were in a chemical-controlled suit. If it were chlorine gas that would protect him from some small leaking of the chlorine gas for a while."

Western reports

Western journalists have also written reports claiming the alleged chemical attack at Douma was a fabrication, and didn't happen.

Robert Fisk, The Independent's correspondent in the Middle East, was among a group of journalists allowed into Douma early last week, and says nobody he interviewed had seen any evidence of the attack.

Asked about the footage of alleged gas victims at the hospital, he says one doctor told him:

"Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia — not gas poisoning."

Another reporter for American News, Pearson Sharp, says he too found no evidence of an attack, and that residents told him it "was staged to help the rebels escape".

But Australian reporter Martin Chulov wrote in the Guardian that doctors had been coerced by the Syrian regime into silence.

"Medics who responded to the suspected gas attack in Douma have been subjected to "extreme intimidation" by Syrian officials who seized biological samples, forced them to abandon patients and demanded their silence," he wrote.

And a Swedish television reporter on the same media tour, Stefan Borg, says he managed to find the apartment block where the main gas attack allegedly happened, and spoke to a man who confirmed he'd lost his wife and other family in the chemical attack.

The journalist went down into the basement where many victims allegedly died, and said there was an "indeterminable smell of something when you come down here" and that "my throat hurts a bit".