グータ化学攻撃
A controversial "US government assessment of the Ghouta attacks" was published by the White House on 30 August 2013, with a longer classified version made available to members of Congress. The report blamed the chemical attacks on the Syrian government, saying rockets containing a nerve agent were fired from government-held territory into neighborhoods in the early morning, impacting at least 12 locations. It stated 1,429 people were killed, including at least 426 children. It dismissed the possibility that evidence supporting the US government's conclusion could have been manufactured by the opposition, stating it "does not have the capability" to fabricate videos, eyewitness accounts, and other information.
Human Rights Watch stated that the UN Security Council should refer the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) "to ensure accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity." Amnesty International also said that the Syria situation should be referred to the ICC because "the best way for the United States to signal its abhorrence for war crimes and crimes against humanity and to promote justice in Syria, would be to reaffirm its support for the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court." However, as the amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court explicitly making it a war crime to use chemical weapons in an internal conflict has not been ratified by any major state nor Syria, the legal situation is complex and reliant on the attack being a part of a wider war crime.
According to public statements, intelligence agencies in Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Turkey, and Germany concluded that the Syrian government was most likely responsible for the attacks. Western intelligence agencies agreed that video evidence is consistent with the use of a nerve agent, such as sarin. Laboratory tests showed traces of sarin, in blood and hair samples collected from emergency workers who responded to the attacks.
Russia said there was no evidence tying the Syrian government to the attack and that it was likely carried out by an opposition group.
ロシアの外務大臣セルゲイ・ラブロフは「ダマスカスで化学兵器が使用されたというアメリカの訴えは、確実な証拠に基づかないものだ。」と述べた。ラブロフはさらにシリア政府は反体制派に対しすでに軍事的優位性を保っており、化学兵器を使用する動機がないと述べた。
攻撃はダマスカス郊外の反体制派が支配する互いに16km離れた2つの独立した地区で行われた。
さらに、カン・アル・アサル化学攻撃で用いられた化学物質はグータ攻撃で用いられた化学物質と同じ顕著な特徴をもつと述べている。
反体制派 、および多くの政府、アラブ連盟、欧州連合はこの攻撃はシリア大統領バッシャール・アル=アサドの指揮する軍により実行されたと述べている。シリアとロシア政府はこの攻撃をシリア政府が行ったとする各国の疑いを否定し、この攻撃は反体制派が市民戦争に外国の力を引き込むために行った偽旗作戦であると主張している。UN Mission のリーダーÅke Sellström は反体制派が化学兵器を取得した経緯についての政府の説明が説得力に欠け、"貧弱な仮説"に基いていると述べている。
フランス、イギリス、アメリカ合衆国を含む幾つかの国は、シリア政府に対して軍事力による介入を行うかどうかについて議論を行った。2013年6月、アメリカ合衆国の上院はグータ攻撃の対抗処置として、シリア政府の化学兵器の使用に対する軍事力の行使の権限付与を発行した。2013年10月、シリア政府がアメリカ、ロシアの交渉による取り決めとして、シリア政府の持つ化学兵器を「一滴残らず」提出することと、CWCに加入する意志を示したことで、軍事力による介入は防がれた。
Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh, who was present in Eastern Ghouta, stated, "Hours [after the shelling], we started to visit the medical points in Ghouta to where injured were removed, and we couldn't believe our eyes. I haven't seen such death in my whole life. People were lying on the ground in hallways, on roadsides, in hundreds." Several medics working in Ghouta reported the administration of large quantities of atropine, a common antidote for nerve agent toxicity, to treat victims.
Doctors Without Borders said the three hospitals it supports in Eastern Ghouta reported receiving roughly 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" over less than three hours during the early morning of 21 August.