Syrian Government Sarin Stockpiles Definitively Linked to Civilian Gassing in Civil War

[HomerThompson]

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity.

Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

Hopefully this puts to rest all the CT nonsense about the rebels being the ones using gas. But, I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[HomerThompson]

@Madmick
@VivaRevolution
@Anung Un Rama

 

[lifelessheap]

Nah

 

[Quipling]

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity.

Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

Hopefully this puts to rest all the CT nonsense about the rebels being the ones using gas. But, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Holding your breath doesn't help with Sarin.

 

[Rod1]

Was it ever in doubt?

 

[HomerThompson]

Was it ever in doubt?

There were multiple posters in here doubting it.

@VivaRevolution especially.

 

[V Belfort]

 

[Gregolian]

Also in the news... the sky appears to be this new shade of blue today.

 

[Rod1]

There were multiple posters in here doubting it.

@VivaRevolution especially.

Considering the mess of the civil war all the defections and looting of government caches that wasnt really that far-fecthed.

 

[VivaRevolution]

There were multiple posters in here doubting it.

@VivaRevolution especially.

You are aware that there are also tests, that show it was not Syrian stock as well right?

And multiple intelligence agencies saying ISIS has chemical weapons capability.

This is what this really comes down to though. The Syrian government was winning, as they are now.

The reward, and the risk for using those weapons was so out of balance and weighted toward risk, that anyone who actually believes the Syrian government used those weapons is a fool.

 

[VivaRevolution]

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity.

Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

Hopefully this puts to rest all the CT nonsense about the rebels being the ones using gas. But, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Btw, this means Jack shit to me. This is from the first attack, and unless someone wants to show me the test from the British company that said it wasnt, and led to Obama calling off bombings, I'm not buying it.

 

[MicroBrew]

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity.

Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

Hopefully this puts to rest all the CT nonsense about the rebels being the ones using gas. But, I'm not going to hold my breath.

But who actually used it?

This Foreign Policy article says that Al Nusra and ISIS acquired Syrian Chemical weapons when they captured a Syrian Army base. This happened 3 months before the Aleppo attack.

--

Abu Ahmed told us how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) came to acquire some of the world’s most fearsome weapons, which were claimed as spoils of war from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces months before its creation.

Roughly four months before the split between the Nusra Front and ISIS,in December 2012, dozens of Syrian jihadi fighters climbed a hill toward Regiment 111 — a large army base near the town of Darat Izza, in northern Syria. That town had been taken roughly five months earlier by a coalition of rebel groups. But while they had besieged Regiment 111 since the summer of 2012, they still had not succeeded in capturing the base from the troops loyal to President Assad.


The weather had turned bad in winter, however, making it more difficult for the Syrian Air Force to hold off the rebels with airstrikes. Moreover, the base was huge, sprawling over almost 500 acres, and difficult to protect from all approaches.


Syrian Army soldiers inside Regiment 111 successfully defended their base during the first rebel attack in early November 2012, killing 18 Nusra fighters in the process. But the cold December wind only fortified the rebels’ resolve. The base was a goldmine: home to guns, artillery, ammunition, and vehicles. And deep inside Regiment 111’s bunkers lay something even more valuable — a cache of chemical weapons.

The attack was led by the Nusra Front and supported mainly by Kataib Muhajiri al-Sham, a unit within Liwa al-Islam; Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen; and Katibat al-Battar, which consisted largely of Libyan jihadis. The fighters knew that the base possessed ammunition and other weapons, but did not know in advance it contained chemical weapons.

As the rebels climbed the hills near Regiment 111, intense fighting erupted. “That day, all of us were full of excitement and revenge,” Abu Ahmad told us. “Everybody wanted to avenge the 18 Nusra brothers who were martyred during the first attack. People were screaming: ‘This time we will conquer it!’”

Within a day, the combined jihadi forces had broken through the lines of the Syrian Army. Shortly after, Regiment 111 was fully under jihadi control. They found large stocks of weapons, ammunition and, to their surprise, chemical agents. They were, according to Abu Ahmad, mainly barrels filled with chlorine, sarin, and mustard gas.

What followed was the distribution of the war spoils. Everybody took some ammunition and weapons. But only the Nusra Front seized the chemical weapons. Abu Ahmad watched as the al Qaeda affiliate called in 10 large cargo trucks, loaded 15 containers with chlorine and sarin gas, and drove them away to an unknown destination. He did not see what happened to the mustard gas.

Three months later, both the Syrian government and rebel groups reported an attack in Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo. The international media said that 26 people had been killed, among them 16 regime soldiers and 10 civilians. Both the Syrian regime and opposition claimed that chemical weapons had been used — and both accused the other of having carried out one of the first chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian war.

Abu Ahmad kept his mouth shut in public, but privately he and some of his Syrian jihadi comrades discussed the matter. Although they did not have any evidence, they wondered whether the material used in the Khan al-Assal attack had been taken from Regiment 111. He knew he couldn’t ask Abu al-Atheer for clarification. By now he had learned one of the golden rules of the secretive jihadi movement: When it’s none of your business, keep quiet.

“Among our people, it is not done to ask,” Abu Ahmad told us.

--

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/17/how-the-islamic-state-seized-a-chemical-weapons-stockpile/

 

[Islam Imamate]

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity.

Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

Hopefully this puts to rest all the CT nonsense about the rebels being the ones using gas. But, I'm not going to hold my breath.

There were multiple gas attacks though and IIRC part of what led many to believe the Syrian regime was behind this specific attack was the delivery method(which is partly why this attack was so lethal) but there were other attacks that weren't as lethal that could've been rebels who got their hands on sarin but lacked the delivery systems to make the most of it like the regime could.

You are aware that there are also tests, that show it was not Syrian stock as well right?

And multiple intelligence agencies saying ISIS has chemical weapons capability.

This is what this really comes down to though. The Syrian government was winning, as they are now.

The reward, and the risk for using those weapons was so out of balance and weighted toward risk, that anyone who actually believes the Syrian government used those weapons is a fool.

There were multiple attacks that happened at the time and at this point it seems pretty clear that the regime was behind at least the attack cited in the OP. To think they wouldn't because of the risk seems to me to underestimate the regime's ambitions. Yes they're winning now and then in these sense that it will most likely survive but now as then they want a total victory and complete control of Syria and with Russian diplomatic support they seemed to think they could

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

I'm kind of upset.

I can't think of any Sarin Gas and/or Chemical weapon puns.

 

[whougonnacall]

Well with the tough guy trump in the white house im sure the russian allied regime is doomed

 

[The ScorpioN]

It's a pick your poison situation, either you have a strongman dictator and the place is relatively stable or you have fanatical Muslims throwing people off roof tops and making half the population wear garbage bags.

Tough situation for sure.

 

[Gregolian]

It's a pick your poison situation, either you have a strongman dictator and the place is relatively stable or you have fanatical Muslims throwing people off roof tops and making half the population wear garbage bags.

Tough situation for sure.

Better the devil you know.

That's my stance since Iraq and Libya.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

was sarin the gas used in The Rock?

other than this, and the IIRC Tokyo subway shit, I don't even recall Sarin ever really being used, that's some wild shit

 

[EZShrimpn]

Of course it did. that also means nothing.

The idea that the syrian government had control over all its weapon stockpiles during a civil war is pants on head retarded.

 

[Fugazy]

was sarin the gas used in The Rock?

other than this, and the IIRC Tokyo subway shit, I don't even recall Sarin ever really being used, that's some wild shit

Nope, that was VX nerve gas.