Trump Tweets on Syrian Gas Attack: ‘Putin, Russia and Iran Are Responsible for Backing Animal Assad’

Trump Tweets on Syrian Gas Attack: ‘Putin, Russia and Iran Are Responsible for Backing Animal Assad’: This is a screen capture from a video allegedly showing victims of the gas attack in Eastern Ghouta, Syria.

Syria Is Obama's Rwanda | VICE United States

Qusai on the streets of Moadamiya, which has been attacked nearly daily by the regime by shelling and aircraft bombings

Twenty-seven-year-old Qusai Zakarya woke up at about 4:30 AM on August 21, 2013. He rolled out his prayer rug inside his family’s two-bedroom apartment in the small town of Moadamiya, Syria, and started his morning prayers.

Alarms coming from nearby Damascus interrupted his daily ritual. After two years of revolution, Qusai had gotten used to the near constant shelling and bombings, but something was different this summer morning. The alarms were the kind “you usually hear in movies about World War II when there is a big air raid,” he told me.

“Within seconds, I started hearing rockets flying into the ground,” Qusai recounted. They hit the rebel-held town about 500 feet away from him.

“Before I realized what was going on, I lost my ability to breathe. I felt like my chest was set on fire. My eyes were burning like hell, and I wasn’t even able to scream to alert my friends,” he said. “So I started beating my chest over and over until I managed to get my first breath.” (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria Is Obama's Rwanda | VICE United States

Syria Poison Gas Attack? Opposition Alleges New Assault

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013, Syrian civilians look for their belongings after clashes between the Sunni-dominated Free Syrian Army and Syrian soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar Assad, supported by Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite fighters, in the town of Hejeira, which Syrian troops captured, in the countryside of Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

AMMAN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Opposition activists again accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of using poison gas in Syria's civil war on Thursday, and said victims had been discovered with swollen limbs and foaming at the mouth.

The activists told Reuters two shells loaded with gas hit a rebel-held area in the town of Nabak, 68 km (40 miles) northeast of Damascus, on a major highway in the Qalamoun region. They reported seven casualties.

Separately, the Syrian Revolution Coordinators Union also accused Assad's forces of using poison gas.

"We have documented nine casualties from poison gas used by the regime in neighbourhoods of Nabak," it said on its Facebook page....(continued)

FULLARTICLE HERE: Syria Poison Gas Attack? Opposition Alleges New Assault

U.N. distances itself from claim that Syrian rebels used nerve gas - Alarabiya.net English

In a video uploaded on the web of a shelling that took place in Damascus's Douma, traces of chemical weapons were spotted on camera. (Al Arabiya)

U.N. war crimes investigators have reached no conclusions on whether any side in the Syrian war has used chemical weapons, the inquiry commission said on Monday, playing down a suggestion from one of the team that rebel forces had done so.
Investigator Carla Del Ponte caught U.N. officials by surprise on Sunday when she said the commission had gathered testimony from casualties and medical staff indicating that rebel forces had used the banned nerve agent sarin.
“The independent international Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict,” it said in a statement..............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: U.N. distances itself from claim that Syrian rebels used nerve gas - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

White House: US believes Syrian regime used chemical weapons - U.S. News

By Kristen Welker, Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Tracy Connor, NBC News

The White House said Thursday that the U.S. believes "with some degree of varying confidence" the Syrian government has used chemical weapons — specifically the nerve agent sarin — against its own people.  

A letter from the White House to members of Congress said the assessment was based on "physiological samples" but called for a United Nations probe to corroborate it and nail down when and how they were used.  

"We are continuing to do further work to establish a definitive judgement as to whether or not the red line has been crossed and to inform our decision-making about what we'll do next," a White House official said.  "All options are on the table in terms of our response," the official added............  

FULL ARTICLE:  
White House: US believes Syrian regime used chemical weapons - U.S. News

France, UK say they have proof of use of chemical weapons by Assad forces | The Times of Israel

Alleged victim of chemical weapons attack on Homs, December 23, 2012 (photo credit: screen capture/YouTube)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Britain and France have told the secretary-general they have reliable evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons near Aleppo, in Homs and possibly in Damascus, U.N. diplomats and officials say.

The British and French ambassadors told Ban Ki-moon in a letter on March 25 that soil samples and interviews with witnesses and opposition figures backed their belief that the government used chemical shells that had caused injuries and deaths, the diplomats and officials said.....

FULL ARTICLE: France, UK say they have proof of use of chemical weapons by Assad forces | The Times of Israel