Via Times of Israel
Syrian rebels on Saturday uploaded to YouTube a clip purportedly depicting victims of a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the regime. The video shows Syrian civilians, some apparently dead and others injured, whose faces were disfigured in a manner that could be caused by a chemical agent.
The rebels claim that the video was filmed in a suburb of Aleppo, where the Syrian regime reportedly maintains its largest depot of chemical weapons.
Citing intelligence reports, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday warned that the Syrian government might use its sizable stockpile of chemical weapons against the rebels fighting to overturn Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, AFP reported.
“We are extremely concerned about the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and we are also concerned about evidence during the last couple of weeks that the regime could use them,” Hague said on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.
The London-based Sunday Times reported that Israeli commandos were on the ground in Syria, monitoring the regime’s chemical weapons depots.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source said was quoted as saying. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”
On Saturday, the Free Syrian Army announced that it had captured trucks belonging to the regime on the road leading to the Damascus international airport. The rebels claimed that some of the equipment they captured was meant to protect Syrian army soldiers from the effects of chemical weapons.
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Very difficult to determine from this video if this is staged (propaganda) or is this the real thing.
- STORMBRINGER SENDS
We've only heard about Sarin. The Sarin pics I've seen don't do this as a nerve agent... what would?
ReplyDeleteI've also seen VX and blister agent mentioned as being in Assad's inventory - this looks like blister; typically on the exposed portions of flesh; i.e. hands & face.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible as well that the rebels, with limited experience with chemical weapons, seized control of some and had a 'boo-boo' handling them, then filmed and used it for propoganda purposes. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteAll I see is a lot of gauze wrap and wet tissue on faces. These could be victims of blister agent. They could also be victims of effing with a beehive, or futzing with a radiator cap on a hot engine block. When everyone's wrapped up like Claude Rains in "The Invisible Man" there's no way to tell. Giving videocams to 6th century cultists isn't the same thing as journalism.
ReplyDeleteAnd considering the nature of who's leading the "resistance", I'm really torn up over which side to root for. Much like the Iran-Iraq War in the '80s, it's one of those things you kind of hope just goes on for years. If it keeps them from screwing with Israel, and too weak to keep interfering in Lebanon, there's a chance that they can hog all the bad consequences themselves, and give the rest of the neighborhood a break for a change.
-Aesop
Perhaps this is just political powerplay. If Amerca feels sorry for us we will get support. FallshirmJ
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