HOW NASSER USED POISON GAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP69B00369R000200290030-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: July 3, 1967
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Rele se820%W/0 4"- RWBr00369R000200290030-0
JulY 3, 1967
OW NASSER USED POISON GAS
Published below, for the first time, is the
proof that Egypt used poison gas in its war
against Yemen. The proof is. in these secret
documents of the International Red Cross. The
full text has not appeared before in English.
. At GENEVA
The undersigned doctors, members of
the Interna-
tional Committee of the Red Cross medical mission to
the Yemen, arrived at Cahar [North Yemen] in the
Wadi Herran, on May 15, 1967, following an appeal for
assistance from the inhabitants who claim d t h
been under gas attack by airplanes on the morning of
May 10, 1967.
The following statements were made by the inhabi-
tants who witnessed the incident:
1. Seventy-five persons died of poison gas shortly
after the raid.
They showed the following symptoms: shortness of
breath, coughing, pink foam at the mouth, general
edema, especially the face; no physical injuries.
2. The undersigned doctors examined the four surviv-
ing victims and observed the following:
-Subjective symptoms: burning eyes and trachea, in-
ternal thorax pain, extreme fatigue, anorexia.
-Objective symptoms: dry cough negative auscult
.
tion in two patients, signs of bronchitis in the other two,
conjunctivitis, facial edema, no traumatic lesions, tympan.
um intact.
3. The undersigned doctors examined a corpse, four
days after death and 12 hours after burial:
Immediately, the common grave was opened, and,
well before the corpses-which were onl
d
y wrappe
in
shrouds, without coffins-were visible, there was a sweet
penetrating smell not unlike garlic. The bodies showed
no traumatic lesions. The skin was pink. Advanced and
general edema all over the body.
Examination of lungs: reddish-brown throughout, en-
largement, consistence and fragility greatly increased,
crepitation considerably reduced.
The undersigned doctors draw the following logical
conclusions from their findings:
1. None of the victims examined, whether survivors
or cor
se
h
d f
p
s ex
ume
rom theh
common grave, sowed
any traumatic lesions.
H. The statements made by witnesses who escaped
from the raid unharmed, in respect of the circumstances
in which 75 inhabitants were killed, are consistent with
the International Committee of the Red Cross medical
mission's own findings by examination of the four survi-
vors and the corpse exhumed from one of the common
graves.
111. T"-.e cause of death in the case of the' corpse ex-
amined was pulmonary edema. The over-all consistency
of the ICRC medical mission's findings shows that in all
probability: this pulmonary edema was caused by in.
.
h
l
a
ation of toxic g
as. .
(Signed) Raymond Janin, ICRC Doctor-Delegate
Willy Brutschin, ICRC Doctor-Delegate
Signed at town Najran, May 18, 1967
Here is, the forensic medical report by the University
of Bern Institute of Forensic Medicine:
Dear Sirs-
In accordance with your instructions of May 21 1967
,,
we have duly examined the report drawn up by two
doctors of the International Committee of the Red Cross
on observations made by them after the bombing of a
village in the Yemen. Their investigations can be sum-
marized in the following manner.
1. Information collected from the survivors in that
village regarding the death of 75 persons.
2. Medical examination of four survivors.
3. Examination of a corpse four days after death and
12 hours after burial.
The phenomena observed are the effects of skin ir-
ritation, conjunctivitis and of mucus in the respiratory
tract and lungs. General edema had been noted, es-
pecially facial and also haemorrhagic pulmonary edema.
On autopsy, red hepatization and a liquid of reddish
scrapings were observed in the lungs.
The observations collected are gradually diversified
and unspecific, but form a definite entity as it whole.
We know of no epidemical disease presenting a sim-
ilar symptomatology or clinical development. The con-
clusions, according to which the death of the deceased
persons as a result of bombing is ascribed to a toxic gas,
seems to us to be perfectly justified. This conclusion is
supported by the total absence of traumatic lesions
caused by the effects of pressure-explosion.
Amongst the various poison gases which can produce
the effects observed, phosphonic esters-nervine gas-
would not, in our opinion, be involved, in view of the
local irritations observed. Their effects would, moreover,
have been characterized by copious salivation, myositis
d
l
an
muscu
ar cramp.
On the other hand, the employment of halogenous
derivatives-phosgene, mustard gas, lewisite, chloride or
cyanogen bromide, or Clark I and II, etc.-would appear
to us the most likely. However, neither bromide nor
cyanogen chloride causes an edemic irritation of the skin.
This also applies to phosgene.
As against this, all the symptoms observed are ex-
plainable by the hypothesis of the use of m t d
US ar gas,
lewisite or similar substances. The odor resembling garlic,
smelled on opening the common grave, would indicate
the employment rather ofmustard
as Th
g
..-
ese toxic sub
stances are pulverized when the bomb explodes In the
f.,..., ..t ..._ .__i
- ..(Signed) Yours sincerely, ,
Professor D. E. Lauppi,
Ditfh In
recor o testitute
Approved For Release 2001/1 1/01:-CIA-RDP69B00369R000200290030-0