Jobar chemical attacks

The Jobar chemical attacks were alleged chemical attacks in Jobar, Damascus, Syria, in April 2013, some of which were witnessed by a reporter and a photographer for the French newspaper Le Monde. Le Monde reported that "in the second half of April, gas attacks became almost a strange kind of routine in Jobar", with Free Syrian Army keeping gas masks to hand along with syringes with an antidote. Further attacks were reported in May.

Le Monde interviewed a doctor on 14 April at the Islamic hospital in Hammuriya; he said that earlier in the day he had given an attack victim 15 shots of atropine. Le Monde saw "Injured fighters ... lying beside five medical workers who had been contaminated by contact with the affected men", and also saw the hospital's director affected after working alongside casualties for an hour.

Free Syrian Army fighters described the fifth attack on 18 April as involving a large cylinder (around 20cm long) hitting the ground.

Le Monde said that "According to a well-informed Western source, the Syrian authorities have gone so far as to use mixtures of chemicals, notably with the addition of tear gas, to make it harder to identify the source of the symptoms." One chemical weapons expert expressed doubt that the events described in Jobar could have involved sarin, saying that sarin victims would not have survived the lengthy journey to hospital described by the newspaper.

Investigations
French intelligence reported later in 2013 that samples from the Jobar attack in April had confirmed the use of sarin, however, a U.N. fact-finding mission who investigated the alleged attack did not receive sufficient or credible information to support the allegation.