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

NO SURPRISE HERE! Exclusive: U.N. Report Will Point to Assad Regime in Massive Chemical Attack | The Cable

U.N. inspectors have collected a "wealth" of evidence on the use of nerve agents that points to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against his own people, according to a senior Western official.

The inspection team, which is expected on Monday to present U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with a highly anticipated report on a suspected Aug. 21 nerve agent attack in the suburbs of Damascus, will not directly accuse the Syrian regime of gassing its own people, according to three U.N.-based diplomats familiar with the investigation. But it will provide a strong circumstantial case -- based on an examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and laboratory tests of soil, blood, and urine samples -- that points strongly in the direction of Syrian government culpability......

FULL ARTICLE HERE: 
Exclusive: U.N. Report Will Point to Assad Regime in Massive Chemical Attack | The Cable

Israeli PM Netanyahu: Syria chemical attack a ‘grievous crime’ | The Times of Israel

Syrian citizens trying to identify dead bodies, after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces, according to activists in Syria, Wednesday, August 21, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Local Committee of Arbeen)

The alleged use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians on Wednesday “proves yet again that we cannot permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday..........
FULL ARTICLE HERE: Netanyahu: Syria chemical attack a ‘grievous crime’ | The Times of Israel

‫اVICTIMS OF THE ASSAD REGIME'S AUGUST 21, 2013 GAS ATTACK - YouTube

What victims, including children, look like after a chemical attack of probably Sarin gas, doctors say. Horror scenario compliments of the Assad regime, aided and abetted by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, among others.  



LINK:
‫الغوطة الشرقية مجزرة مروعة راحة ضحيتها مئات القتلى بالغازات الكيماوية‬‎ - YouTube

Former defense minister calls Syrian war 'holocaust' | The Times of Israel

MK Binyamin Ben Eliezer, July 21, 2010. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Amid reports of a devastating chemical weapons offensive in Syria, Labor Party MK and former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on Wednesday called the ongoing civil war there “a holocaust” and accused the international community of indifference to the Syrian people’s suffering..............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Former defense minister calls Syrian war 'holocaust' | The Times of Israel

France says tests from Syria show sarin use - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

France says it is certain that the nerve agent sarin has been used in Syria on several occasions following tests it has carried out on samples recovered from the country. "These tests show the presence of sarin in various samples in our possession," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the test results had been handed to the United Nations.

The Syrian regime and the opposition have traded accusations that the other side have used chemical weapons during the two-year-long conflict. "We have no doubt that the gas is being used ... the laboratory tests are clear," he told France 2 television about the bllod and hair samples later on Tuesday. "There is no doubt that the regime and its accomplices" are using them, he added.  

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE: France says tests from Syria show sarin use - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Video: Doctors record ‘chemical attacks’ in Syria - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

AFP, Geneva

A group of doctors working in war-torn Syria said Friday its members had seen dozens of patients suffering from what they believe are chemical weapons attacks, saying the number seemed to be rising.

“We have dozens of cases of people hurt in what seems to be chemical attacks, especially civilians,” Tawfik Chamaa, a founding member of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM), told AFP.

The organization, which has dozens of doctors in field hospitals across Syria, said 97 percent of the victims were civilians, and that the cases were mainly concentrated in the suburbs of Damascus.

Referring to a list of 34 suspected attacks, compiled by the group Syrian Human Rights Watch in Cairo, Chamaa said the attacks appeared mainly to be carried out by fighter jets, helicopters and long- and mid-range missiles...............
LINK: Video: Doctors record ‘chemical attacks’ in Syria - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Le Monde: Chemical warfare in Syria (in English)

Reporters for Le Monde spent two months clandestinely in the Damascus area alongside Syrian rebels.  They describe the extent of the Syrian tragedy, the intensity of the fighting, the humanitarian drama. On the scene during chemical weapons attacks, they bear witness to the use of toxic arms by the government of Bashar al-Assad.

Jobar, Syria, by our special correspondent, Jean-Philippe Rémy

A chemical attack on the Jobar front, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, doesn't look like anything much at first. It's not spectacular. Above all, it's not detectable. And that's the aim: by the time the rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army who have penetrated furthest into Damascus understand that they've been exposed to chemical products by government forces, it's too late. No matter which type of gas is used, it has already produced its effects, only a few hundred meters from residential areas of the Syrian capital.

FULL ARTICLE, TRANSLATED: 
Chemical warfare in Syria

Syria : "Le Monde" Witnesses Chemical Attacks W/TRANSLATED VIDEO

Guerre chimique à Damas by lemondefr

ARTICLE AND VIDEO LINK: Syrie : "Le Monde" témoin d'attaques toxiques

SMOKING GUN: Report: First-hand accounts claim Syria chemical weapons used - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebel fighters in Damascus, according to first-hand accounts in France’s Le Monde newspaper.
 
The newspaper, in a report issued on its website on Monday, said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days after an attack on April 13 on the Jobar front, just inside central Damascus.
 
Assad’s government and the rebels fighting to oust him have accused each other of using chemical weapons. U.N. investigators have been ready for weeks, but diplomatic wrangling and safety concerns have delayed their entry into Syria.
 
Undercover in and around the Damascus area for two months alongside Syrian rebels, a Le Monde reporter and photographers aid they had witnessed battlefield chemical attacks and had also talked to doctors and other witnesses of their aftermath.

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Report: First-hand accounts claim Syria chemical weapons used - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus | The Times of Israel

A victim of an alleged chemical attack in Jobar, Syria, in April. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons-laced mortars in a Damascus neighborhood Saturday, injuring dozens, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed.

Dozens of people were being treated for respiratory difficulties following the attack, according to reports carried by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel.

The channel also reiterated reports by the BBC Thursday that chemical weapons were used in Saraqib in Idlib province on April 29. Two helicopters dropped devices on the town, which is located southwest of Aleppo, as it came under bombardment from regime forces, the report said..........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus | The Times of Israel

BBC News - Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'

The BBC has been shown evidence apparently corroborating reports of a chemical attack in Syria last month.

A BBC correspondent who visited the northern town of Saraqeb was told by eyewitnesses that government helicopters had dropped at least two devices containing poisonous gas...........

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO: BBC News - Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'

U.S. says ‘strong evidence’ Syria used chemical weapons - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to the media at the State Department in Washington May 10, 2013. (Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday there was “strong evidence” that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against rebel forces, according to AFP.

“This fight is about the terrible choices that the Assad regime has made with its willingness to kill anywhere... to use gas, which we believe there is strong evidence of use of,” Kerry said during a Google+ hangout.........

FULL ARTICLE: U.S. says ‘strong evidence’ Syria used chemical weapons - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

DAMNING TESTIMONY AGAINST ASSAD REGIME by Defecting Syrian Officer: I Was Ordered to Use Chemical Weapons - YouTube

Why hasn't this man been allowed to testify before Congress:

Defecting Syrian Officer Brigadier-General Zaher Al-Saket: I Was Ordered to Use Chemical Weapons
Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai/Saudi Arabia) - April 27, 2013

FULL ARTICLE: Defecting Syrian Officer: I Was Ordered to Use Chemical Weapons - YouTube

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

Israel confirms launching airstrike on Syria targeting weapons - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

 

Israeli soldiers stand guard next to a road sign showing the different distances to Jerusalem, Damascus and other locations, at an army post in Mount Bental in the occupied Golan Heights. (AFP)

Israel confirmed on Saturday that it had recently launched an airstrike on Syria, confirming earlier U.S. media reports.

"The air raid on Syria targeted a shipment of advanced missiles," Israeli officials said in a statement reported by Al Arabiya TV.

Earlier on Friday, officials told CNN that the strike was conducted “in the Thursday-Friday time frame” and targeted a shipment of weapons believed to be sent to Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah.

Sources also told CNN that they did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Israel confirms launching airstrike on Syria targeting weapons - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian army ordered to use chemical weapons, defected general tells Al Arabiya - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

A former army general from the chemical weapons branch, Zahir al-Sakit, said he was instructed to use chemical weapons. (Al Arabiya)

The Syrian government ordered the use chemical weapons against the Free Syrian Army (FSA) during select battles with Syrian regime forces, a defected general told Al Arabiya late Saturday.

A former army general from the chemical weapons branch, Zahir al-Sakit, said he was instructed to use chemical weapons during a regime battle with the FSA in the southwestern area of Hauran.

But instead, Sakit disobeyed the orders and swapped the chemicals with disinfectant water he called “Javel water.”

“I was given orders to execute the use of poisonous chemicals in caves and tunnels that are used by the Free Syrian Army, but I mixed all chemicals with water and used Javel water instead,” Sakit said...........

FULL ARTICLE: Syrian army ordered to use chemical weapons, defected general tells Al Arabiya - 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