Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Chlorine has been used as a weapon in Syria according to a watchdog group. -AP

A May report of another possible Chlorine attack. Euronews

The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons released a report today saying that chlorine has been systemically used as a weapon in Syria. -AP The deadly gas was used to attack three northern villages. The organization based the report on dozens of eyewitness statements from civilians, doctors and victims. The report did not claim to know who was responsible for the attack. Last May Human Rights Watch released a similar report claiming that the Syrian government had dropped chlorine from helicopters on rebel villages. Syria has destroyed all of its chemical weapon stockpiles but for some reason chlorine, which has industrial uses, is not classified as a chemical weapon.

My Comment:
Yet another reason why the Syrian conflict is horrible. ISIS has overshadowed the regime these days when it comes to coverage of their atrocities, but the fact remains that every group involved in this war has committed them. The report doesn't say who is responsible so I won't speculate about it too much. I do know that a simple chlorine attack isn't outside the capabilities of any of the groups involved in the conflict. The fact that these attacks happened in rebel held areas does seem to absolve the FSA of guilt, but that does not mean automatically that it is the regime for sure. It's more likely that it is Syrian loyalists but ISIS probably has the capability to do this as well. The Al-Qaeda aligned Al-Nursa front is a possible candidate as well.

Way back when I started this blog I had a post about the article Seymour Hersh wrote about Benghazi. In it he accused Turkey of providing chemical arms to Syrian rebels as a false flag attack to try and get the United States to attack Syria. That's widely considered a conspiracy theory but given my very low opinion of the government of Turkey and the fact they really wanted Assad gone, it makes me wonder if it might be true...

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