Oaklandsocialist has received the following from Omran Holbane, who identifies himself as coming from East Ghouta:

I will tell my story in short so as not to prolong my conversation because all the alphabet will stand helpless to describe what I will tell, we slept in the basements and shelters after a campaign of thunderous shelling that was and still continues, and suddenly I smelled a strange smell was gnawing my head and ran outside to see what happened And what strange smell that I have here and it was the shock and after a few meters from the place and my people had languished in the ground as if they slept and I felt that I was unable to move and became a little bit a little until my body was lying down on the road and here I realized It’s not a group night party but it’s a mass death party that my mind was working and I’m thinking of This is my last moment and I will be relieved of the injustice of the Assad forces and the Russian army and here I was picking up my last breath. Then I felt a hand hug me and carry me. I said these good spirits that preceded me wanted to take me with her and I closed my eyes and saw only darkness. Minutes or hours to know because I was in another world I felt as if I had bathed and opened my eyes and I did not open I saw women and women and old people are all pouring water on them in order to deactivate the chemicals and I see silently I was not verbal able to utter anything like I was dead but I see the people around me die slowly …