Last week, the internet was flooded with reports about chemical weapons being used near the capital Damascus in the Goutha region. Be warned, what you're about to see is both graphic and heartbreaking (via Truth Loader):



Details about the alleged attack remain unclear, but footage captured at the site indicates that the nerve agent Sarin might have been used. Over at Puff the Mutant Dragon, they explain the horrors of what it's like to be poisoned by this deadly nerve agent:
Your brain loses the ability to control your muscles, including the muscles in your diaphragm that enable you to breathe, so you go into convulsions (your muscles contracting uncontrollably), drool, lose control of your bladder, your chest tightens up, you stop breathing and eventually die from respiratory failure. It’s not an easy way to die. Whoever decided to fire this at civilians is one sick puppy, no two ways about it.
Sarin was accidentally invented by German chemist who was tinkering around while trying to come up with a powerful new pesticide to kill bugs. One day, he came up with something that smelled vaguely like apples, took a whiff and nearly ended up killing himself.

Rumors about this fragrant new compound got round to the German government and eventually piqued Hitler's interest. And we all know what he ended up using it for.

For a further scientific explanation that explains the danger of this deadly gas, read the full post here