On the second day of the live exercise, activities shifted locale to the nearby village of “Santar”. Following the previous day’s attack on the stadium, the local mayor has sent an urgent request for training of residents to protect themselves against a possible assault on the village with chemical weapons. Units of the ASSISTEX force are deployed to Santar and quickly instruct 20 villagers in the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
In due course, residents in the area discover two unexploded grenades and two suspicious packages that may be Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at the gate to the village. The ASSISTEX command center is notified and deploys a bomb disposal team to the scene. They safely recover the grenades and one of the IEDs. On examining the second IED, the disposal expert suspects it may be rigged with a chemical weapons agent. A mobile x-ray ‘gun’ that can detect chemical agent from up to 30 meters is trained on the IED but finds only a conventional explosive, and the device is disposed of with a blast from a high-pressure water cannon.
Around noon, Santar is struck with chemical weapons rockets. The ASSISTEX command post deploys all available national and international assets to the village. The trainees don their PPEs and search the village and surrounding area for casualties. With the assistance of international search-and-rescue teams, more than 80 casualties are brought to a mobile medical unit that has set up outside the ‘hot zone’ around the village. The casualties receive pre-triage to ascertain the severity and nature (chemical/non-chemical) of their injuries, are decontaminated, and then removed from the area for treatment at a mobile hospital according to their injuries.
Meanwhile, an OPCW Investigation of Alleged Use (IUA) sampling team arrives and takes water samples from a well inside the hot zone. After external decontamination, the sample containers are transferred to an OPCW mobile laboratory for analysis to identify the chemicals. Under OPCW escort to maintain chain of custody, a split sample is then escorted by OPCW personnel to the airport and shipped to a pre-determined certified laboratory for confirmation of the results.
At the same time that events are playing out at Santar, the ASSISTEX command post receives reports of more suspected IEDs that have been found in a sports hall near the stadium, scene of the previous day’s attack. Urban search-and rescue (USAR) specialists arrive to evacuate casualties and mark the locations of the suspected IEDs. Bomb disposal experts are then called in defuse the devices.
At 15:45 on Day 2, the Local Emergency Management Authority (LEMA) declares the situation under control and ASSISTEX operations are concluded.