Ex-army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon became a volunteer in Syria and said, ‘I’ve never seen anything as horrific as what is going on in Ghouta. Its starving people live underground in cellars, caves and tunnels. Three times in the past four days chlorine bombs were dropped by Syrian forces. Outlawed by the Geneva Convention, the chlorine combines with water in the lungs to produce hydrochloric acid, which dissolves the lungs. When civilians are flushed out onto the streets, they face death from the barrel-bombs and high-energy explosives that rain down from Putin’s Russian jets and Assad’s aircraft. Water is contaminated. Hospitals are targeted in air strikes. Ghouta is the last bastion to hold out against Bashar al-Assad and its inhabitants are being bombed, gassed and starved into submission.’ He added, ‘Putin can do as he pleases, and there will be chilling consequences for Britain’s security unless we act.’