Showing posts with label Syrian rebels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syrian rebels. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saudi Arabia To Supply Syrian Rebels With Anti-Aircraft Missiles
End Of Days News
Saudi Arabia To Supply Syrian Rebels With Anti-Aircraft Missiles
*(Click on Image to Enlarge)* *Report: Saudi Arabia To Supply Rebels With Anti-Aircraft Missiles -- Digital Journal* A report released by a German news agency on Sunday, claims that Riyadh has been planning on sending European-made anti-aircraft missiles known as MANPADS, or man-portable air-defense systems, to the Syrian opposition. Fars News reported that according to Der Spiegel, a classified report received by the German government and the German Foreign Intelligence detailed Saudi Arabia's intended plans of arming the rebels with portable air-defense systems. The missiles... more »
Friday, June 7, 2013
Al Qaeda: Syrian rebels must set up caliphate for war on Israel
End Of Days News
DEBKAfile June 7, 2013, 7:06 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ayman Zawahiri, the al Qaeda leader, in his first remarks about the Syrian civil conflict, warned rebel fighters “not to do the West’s work by replacing President Assad with a moderate, democratic government.” Instead, an Islamic caliphate must rise in Syria “to wage all-out war with neighboring Israel.” Zawahiri declared: “America, its agents and allies want you [the rebels] to shed your blood and the blood of your children and women to bring down the criminal Ba'athist regime, and then set up a government loyal to them and to safeguard Israel's security," he said.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Syrian jets blast Syrian rebels fleeing Al Qusayr
End Of Days News
DEBKAfile June 5, 2013, 4:57 PM (GMT+02:00)
Western sources report that Syrian aerial bombardments are decimating the rebels in flight from al-Qusayr after its capture by Syrian army and Hizballah units was completed Wednesday. Many are being killed. Syrian troops have so far denied medical teams access to the 1,200 wounded trapped in the town by days of fighting. The Syrian high command said that after smashing the rebels in al Qusayr, its iron fist will crush every other rebel position in the country. DEBKAfile: The loss of Qusayr has cut off rebel forces still holding onto locations in central and northern Syria from their Lebanese sources of supply.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Medics Have Treated Hundreds Of Syrian Rebels For 'Symptoms Of Chemical Exposure'
End Of Days News
Medics Have Treated Hundreds Of Syrian Rebels For 'Symptoms Of Chemical Exposure'
The battle for Qusair, near Homs, is one of the most crucial. Photograph: Reuters *Syria Medics Treat Hundreds Of Rebels For 'Symptoms Of Chemical Exposure' -- The Guardian* *Detailed account of Syria conflict include claims that suggest chemicals and toxic gases have been used on battlefields.* Medics working in six rebel-held districts near Damascus have treated several hundred fighters for symptoms of chemical exposure since March, a detailed investigation has found, adding fresh impetus to claims the Syrian regime has resorted to the banned weapons. A reporter from the Fr... more »
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Islamist group says Hermon mortars fired to avenge ‘Nakba’
End Of Days News
A previously unknown Islamist group took responsibility Thursday for thefiring of two mortar shells at Mount Hermon a day earlier. It was the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising that the area was targeted, and it led authorities to shut down the tourist area for several hours.
In a message posted online, the self-described Abdul Qader Husseini Battalions of the Free Palestine movement said it “attacked an observatory of the Zionist entity on the occupied Golan Heights with missiles on the anniversary of return, May 15, 2013, avenging the martyrs of return [who died] last year.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Historic Damascus synagogue looted and destroyed
End Of Days News
The 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in the Syrian capital of Damascus — the country’s holiest Jewish site — was looted and burned to the ground.
The Syrian army loyal to President Bashar Assad and rebel forces were blaming each other for the destruction of the historic synagogue, according to reports on Sunday.\
The synagogue was said to be built on the site where the prophet Elijah concealed himself from persecution and anointed his successor, Elisha, as a prophet. It had been damaged earlier this month by mortars reportedly fired by Syrian government forces.
The rebels said the Syrian government looted the synagogue before burning it to the ground, Israel Radio reported Sunday.
The government said the rebels burned the synagogue and that so-called Zionist agents stole its historic religious items in an operation that had been planned for several weeks, the Arabic Al-Manar Television reported, citing the Arabic Syria Truth website.
The news came as Jews around the world marked the final days of Passover, the festival of freedom.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Syria rebels vow to 'liberate Golan Heights' after Assad falls
End Of Days News
Syrian rebels operating in the region near the border with
Israel threatened on Sunday to fight to regain the Golan Heights from Israel
following the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In a video published online, a rebel fighter, filmed
against the backdrop of the Golan Heights, said "we are in the occupied Golan
Heights, which the traitor Hafez Assad sold to Israel 40 years ago. These lands
are blessed and the despicable Assad family promised to liberate them, but for
40 years the Syrian army did not fire a single bullet. We will open a military
campaign against Israel. We will fire the bullets that Assad did not and we will
liberate the Golan."
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
In first, Syrian rebels set to take control of major city
End Of Days News
Fighting still continues in Raqqa following capture of local governor; incident follows locals toppling statue of Hafez Assad
Syrian rebels battled pockets of regime loyalists in the northern city of Raqqa on Tuesday after capturing the governor of the northern province in fierce clashes overnight, activists said.
Rebel fighters pushed government troops from most of Raqqa, a city of some 500,000 people on the Euphrates River, on Monday. If the opposition manages to wrest all of Raqqa from the government, it would mark the first time an entire city has fallen into opposition hands, dealing both a strategic and a symbolic blow to President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said opposition fighters captured the governor of Raqqa province, Hassan Jalili, after clashes overnight near the governor’s office in the provincial capital, also named Raqqa. The Observatory said the head of Assad’s ruling Baath party in the province was also in rebel custody.
Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said Jalili is one of the highest-ranking officials to fall into rebel hands since the Syrian crisis began nearly two years ago.
Righting was still raging on Tuesday near an intelligence building in the city as well as several other places, he said, adding that “some of Raqqa is still under regime control.”
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Assad’s troops retreat from Golan, leaving Islamist rebels to confront Israel
End Of Days News
President Bashar Assad has evacuated most of the troops of his 5th Army Division from their permanent bases on the Golan opposite Israeli forces and transferred the unit along with its artillery to Damascus, debkafile’s military sources report.
The Syrian ruler’s step had three purposes:
1. To reinforce his Damascus defenses;
2. To carve out a buffer zone along the Israeli border and leave it under rebel control.
3. To provide the jihadists fighting in rebel ranks with access to the Israeli border fence. Senior officers in the IDF’s northern command believe it is just a matter of time before these al Qaeda-associated fighters hurl themselves at the border fence to break through, or target Israeli military targets from across the Syrian border.
Assad first practiced this stratagem on Syria’s northern frontier with Turkey.
Six months ago, he opened the door of his border region to let armed bands of the separatist PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) through from Iraq and set up new strike bases opposite Turkey’s back door, to which they could flee after attacks.
The PKK took full advantage of this opportunity. Indeed, to curb the Kurdish offensive, Ankara was forced to enter into negotiations with PKK leaders for a settlement of their claims, although they are still poised in Syria to resume their attacks.
Israel does not have that option because most of the Islamists fighting with the Syrian rebels are associated with al Qaeda and committed to jihad against the Jewish state.
debkafile reports that Saturday, Feb. 16, Israeli government and military leaders were at odds over whether to extend medical treatment to seven Syrians injured in battle on the Golan. In the event, they were allowed to cross the border and transferred to hospital in Safed.
But because of the argument, the official communiqué said only that the decision was taken on humanitarian grounds but omitted to specify whether the injured Syrians were soldiers or rebels.
However, there was never any doubt that they were in fact Syrian conscripts wounded in the course of their unit’s withdrawal from the Golan. The argument against giving the soldiers medical treatment was that they were Bashar Assad’s troops and looking after them was tantamount to endorsing Assad’s hostile schemes and therefore unacceptable. It was settled by avoiding identifying the wounded men.
; "Syrian rebels occupy Golan")
Syrian rebels occupy
Golan
President Bashar Assad has evacuated most of the troops of his 5th Army Division from their permanent bases on the Golan opposite Israeli forces and transferred the unit along with its artillery to Damascus, debkafile’s military sources report.
The Syrian ruler’s step had three purposes:
1. To reinforce his Damascus defenses;
2. To carve out a buffer zone along the Israeli border and leave it under rebel control.
3. To provide the jihadists fighting in rebel ranks with access to the Israeli border fence. Senior officers in the IDF’s northern command believe it is just a matter of time before these al Qaeda-associated fighters hurl themselves at the border fence to break through, or target Israeli military targets from across the Syrian border.
Assad first practiced this stratagem on Syria’s northern frontier with Turkey.
Six months ago, he opened the door of his border region to let armed bands of the separatist PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) through from Iraq and set up new strike bases opposite Turkey’s back door, to which they could flee after attacks.
The PKK took full advantage of this opportunity. Indeed, to curb the Kurdish offensive, Ankara was forced to enter into negotiations with PKK leaders for a settlement of their claims, although they are still poised in Syria to resume their attacks.
Israel does not have that option because most of the Islamists fighting with the Syrian rebels are associated with al Qaeda and committed to jihad against the Jewish state.
debkafile reports that Saturday, Feb. 16, Israeli government and military leaders were at odds over whether to extend medical treatment to seven Syrians injured in battle on the Golan. In the event, they were allowed to cross the border and transferred to hospital in Safed.
But because of the argument, the official communiqué said only that the decision was taken on humanitarian grounds but omitted to specify whether the injured Syrians were soldiers or rebels.
However, there was never any doubt that they were in fact Syrian conscripts wounded in the course of their unit’s withdrawal from the Golan. The argument against giving the soldiers medical treatment was that they were Bashar Assad’s troops and looking after them was tantamount to endorsing Assad’s hostile schemes and therefore unacceptable. It was settled by avoiding identifying the wounded men.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Insight: Divided Damascus confronted by all-out war
End Of Days News
Whole families can be obliterated by air raids that miss their targets.
Wealthy Syrians or their children are kidnapped. Some are returned but people
tell grim tales of how others are tortured and dumped even when the ransom is
paid.
People also tell of prisoners dying under torture or from infected wounds; of
looting by the government's feared shabbiha militias or by rebels fighting to
throw out the Assad family.
That is one Damascus. In the other, comprising the central districts of a
capital said to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, the
restaurant menus are full, the wine is cheap and the souks are packed with
shoppers.
Employees report for work, children go to school and shops are open,
seemingly undeterred by the din and thud of war.
The two cities exist a few miles apart - for now.
For Damascus and its outskirts are rapidly descending into civil war and
everything that comes with it - lawlessness, looting, kidnapping and revenge
killings. Like the rest of the country, the capital and its suburbs are crawling
with armed gangs.
"Anybody can come to you pretending he is security and grab you in broad
daylight, put you in a car and speed off and nobody dares interfere or rescue
you," says Lama Zayyat, 42. "A girl in the 7th grade was kidnapped and her
father was asked to pay a big ransom. The same happened to other children," she
said.
Nobody really knows who is behind the kidnappings. In one gang, one brother
is in charge of abductions while another brother negotiates with the victims.
The fear is palpable.
NO SECT HAS BEEN SPARED
The war has not yet reached the heart of the capital, but it is shredding the
suburbs. In the past week, government troops backed by air power unleashed
fierce barrages on the east of the city in an attempt to flush out rebel
groups.
Most of central Damascus is controlled by Assad's forces, who have erected
checkpoints to stop bomb attacks. The insurgents have so far failed to take
territory in the center.
Just as loyalist forces seem unable to regain control of the country, there
looks to be little chance the rebels can storm the center of Damascus and attack
the seat of Assad's power.
For most of last week the army rained shells on the eastern and southern
neighborhoods of Douma, Jobar, Zamalka and Hajar al-Aswad, using units of the
elite Republican Guard based on the imposing Qasioun mountain that looms over
the city.
The rebels, trying to break through the government's defense perimeter, were
periodically able to overrun roadblocks and some army positions, but at heavy
cost.
Jobar and Zamalka are situated near military compounds housing Assad's
forces, while Hajar al-Aswad in the south is one of the gateways into the city,
close to Assad's home and the headquarters of his republican guard and
army.
Since the uprising began two years ago, 70,000 people have been killed,
700,000 have been driven from Syria and
millions more are displaced, homeless and hungry. No section of society has been
spared, whether Christians, Alawites or Sunnis, but in every community it is the
poor who are suffering most.
Electricity is sporadic. Hospitals are understaffed as so many doctors -
often targeted on suspicion of treating rebel wounded - have fled. Hotels and businesses barely
function.
Outside petrol stations and bakeries, queues are long and supplies often run
out, meaning people have to come back the next day. Those who can afford it pay
double on a thriving black market.
The scale of the suffering can be seen in the ubiquitous obituary notices on
the walls of Damascus streets - some announcing the deaths of whole families
killed by shelling.
As if oblivious of these private daily tragedies, the government insists the
situation is under control, while the rebels say the Assads' days are
numbered.
NOWHERE NEAR OVER
Ordinary Syrians are convinced their ordeal is nowhere near over. While they
believe Assad will not be able to reverse the gains of the rebels, they cannot
see his enemies prevailing over his superior firepower, and Russian and Iranian
support.
"The regime won't be able to crush the revolution and the rebels won't be
able to bring down the regime," said leading opposition figure Hassan
Abdel-Azim. "The continuation of violence won't lead to the downfall of the
regime, it will lead to the seizure of the country by armed gangs, which will
pose a grave danger not only to Syria but to our neighbors".
"Right now no one is capable of winning," said a Damascus-based senior Arab
envoy. "The crisis will continue if there is no political process. It is
deadlock."
Other diplomats in Damascus say the United States and its allies are getting
cold feet about arming the rebels, fearing the growing influence of Islamist
radicals such the al-Nusra Front linked to al-Qaeda, banned last year by
Washington.
Some remarks recur again and again in Damascus conversations: "Maybe he will
stay in power, after all", and, above all, "Who is the alternative to
Assad?"
"At first I thought it was a matter of months. That's why I came here and
stayed to bear witness to the final moments," said Rana Mardam Beik, a
Syrian-American writer. "But it looks like it will be a while so I am thinking
of going back to the U.S."
Loyalty to Assad is partly fed by fear of the alternative. Facing a
Sunni-dominated revolt, Syria's minorities, including Christians and Assad's own
Alawites - an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam - fear they will slaughtered or
sidelined if the revolution succeeds and Sunni fundamentalists come to
power.
MINORITIES' FEAR
Many Christians are already trying to emigrate to countries such as Sweden,
diplomats say.
"The minorities have every right to be frightened because no one knows what
is the alternative. Is it a liberal, civic, pluralistic and democratic state, or
is the alternative an Islamist extremist rule that considers the minorities
infidels and heretics?" said Abdel Azim.
The government tells the minorities the only alternative to Assad is
Islamism. Loyalist brutality against the Sunni majority is in danger of making
this a self-fulfilling prophecy, by sucking in jihadi extremists from Libya to Saudi
Arabia.
"I am not with the regime but we are sure that if Bashar goes the first
people they will come for are the Alawites, then the Shi'ites and then us
Christians. They are fanatics," said George Husheir, 50, an IT
engineer.
At the Saint Joseph Church in Bab Touma, the old Christian quarter of
Damascus, Christians in their dozens, mostly middle-aged and older couples,
gathered for mass on a Friday morning.
"We don't know what the future holds for us and for this country," said the
priest in his sermon. "The Christians of Syria need to pray more."
Nabiha, a dentist in her 40s, said: "Bashar is a Muslim president but he is
not a fanatic. He gave us everything. Why shouldn't we love him. Look at us here
in our church, we pray, we mark our religious rituals freely, we do what we like
and nobody interferes with us."
The fear of the Christians extends to the Alawite and minority Shi'ites. "If
Bashar goes we definitely have to leave too because the Sufianis (Sunni Salafis)
are coming and they are filled with a sectarian revenge against us," said one
wealthy middle class Shi'ite.
COSTLY WAR
Alongside sectarian hatreds, class and tribal acrimony is also surfacing.
Wealthy Sunnis in the capital are already in a panic about poor Sunni Islamists
from rural areas descending on their neighborhoods.
"When they come they will eat us alive", one rich Sunni resident of Damascus
said, repeating what a cab driver dropping him in the posh Abou Roummaneh
district told him: "Looting these houses will be allowed."
Yet many activists feel protective of the revolution, despite the brutal
behavior of some Islamist rebels.
"People talk about chaos and anarchy after Assad, but so what if we have two
years of a messy transition? That is better than to endure another 30 years of
this rule," said Rana Darwaza, 40, a Sunni academic in Damascus.
Prominent human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said the suffering is a price
that had to be paid. "Those on the ground will continue to fight even with their
bare hands", he said.
He said there are thousands of prisoners in horrific conditions in Assad's
jails. Some suffocate in overcrowded cells while others die under torture or
from untreated wounds. "They don't give them medical treatment or pain killers
or antibiotics. They leave them to die," he said.
Close watchers of Syria predict that if there is no settlement in a few
months the conflict could go on for years. Yet the economy is collapsing, leaving the
government to rely on dwindling foreign reserves, private assets and Iranian
funds.
There is no tourism, no oil revenue, and 70 percent of businesses have left
Syria, said analyst Nabil Samman. "We are heading for destruction, the future is
dark", he added.
Added to the religious animosity between the Sunni majority and the Alawite
minority who took control when Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970 are social
and economic grievances fuelled by the predatory practices of the
elite.
This resentment extends to young middle class Syrians who feel they have lost
a way of life and that their country is being used by regional powers for proxy
war.
"All the regional point-scoring is taking place in Syria. We have Libyan
fighters and Saudis fighting for freedom in Syria, why are they here? Let them
go and demand freedom in their own countries?," said banker Hani Hamaui,
29.
Two years into the uprising, Assad is hanging on. Some will always back him
and others want him dead. But many just want an end to the fighting. They may
have to wait for some time.
Signs daubed on the gates to the city by Assad's troops are a reminder that
the battle for Damascus will be costly. "Either Assad, or we will set the
country ablaze", they say.
(Reuters) - MiG warplanes roar low overhead to strike rebels fighting to oust
President Bashar al-Assad on the fringes of Damascus, while artillery batteries
pound the insurgents from hills overlooking a city divided between all-out war
and a deceptive calm.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Syrian rebels fight close to heart of Damascus
End Of Days News
Their offensive aims to break a stalemate in the city of two million people,
where artillery and air strikes have prevented opposition fighters entrenched to
the east from advancing despite their capture of army fortifications, the
activists said.
"We have moved the battle to Jobar," said Captain Islam Alloush of the rebel
Islam Brigade, referring to a district which links rebel strongholds in the
eastern suburbs with the central Abbasid Square.
"The heaviest fighting is taking place in Jobar because it is the key to the
heart of Damascus."
Assad, battling to crush a 22-month-old uprising in which 60,000 people have
died, has lost control of large parts of the country but his forces, backed by
air power, have so far kept rebels on the fringes of the capital.
State media and pro-Assad websites said rebel fighters were pushed back from
Jobar and other parts of the Ghouta area of eastern Damascus.
"Our noble army is continuing its operations against the terrorists in
Irbeen, Zamalka and Harasta and Sbeineh, destroying the criminal lairs," Syrian
television said.
But rebels said they had made significant gains.
"Parts of the Damascus ringroad fell to us today. The road has been
effectively the last remaining barrier between the Ghouta and the city," said
Abu Ghazi, a rebel commander based in the eastern suburb of Irbeen.
"I don't want to give people false hopes but I think if street fighting
reaches central Damascus the regime will not be able to quell it this time," he
added.
A disorganized rebel advance on the city failed last year. But this time, he
said, opposition fighters had established supply lines to support their
offensive.
"WE WANT TO SHAKE THE REGIME"
"There is a new strategy, brigades are united. What is happening in the field
is huge but it is a preparation for bigger operations," said Abu Moaz al-Agha, a
leader and spokesman of the Gathering of Ansar al-Islam which includes many
Islamist brigades.
"Right now we will attack checkpoints specially in Jobar that some time ago
seemed impossible to come near to. We want to shake the regime."
Authorities in Damascus closed Abbasid Square and the Fares al-Khoury
thoroughfare as fighters attacked roadblocks and fortifications with
rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, activists said.
"The areas of Jobar, Zamalka, al-Zablatani and parts of Qaboun and the
ringroad have become a battleground," activist Fida Mohammad said from
Qaboun.
Assad's core forces, mostly from his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of
Shi'ite Islam, are based in Qasioun Mountain, which is part of Damascus, and on
hilltops dotted with artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers.
Estimated at 70,000 army, security and militia personnel, the core forces
have a supply line to the coast that has remained open despite rebel efforts to
disrupt it.
Residents reported explosions across the east and north of the capital. "The
army seems to have been caught by surprise. Reports from the heart of the battle
are talking about several tanks being hit and the army has been pushed to
Abbasid Square," one activist said.
The rebel Liwa al-Islam unit said the operation to enter eastern parts of
Damascus aimed to relieve pressure on two large southwestern suburbs that have
been under army siege.
Rebels were also attacking the town of Adra, 17 km (10 miles) northeast of
Damascus. Video footage purportedly showed an armored vehicle in the area being
hit by a rocket. Thousands of refugees had fled to the town, which is home to
Syria's largest prison.
In Jobar, mosque speakers chanted "God is Greatest" in support of opposition
fighters who attacked roadblocks in the neighborhood, activists said.
They said tanks stationed on the edge of the central district of Midan, just
outside the walls of Old Damascus, shelled southern districts of the
city.
SUICIDE CAR BOMB
In Palmyra, 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Damascus, on the main road to the
oil-producing east of the country, a suicide car bomb struck a military
intelligence compound, causing dozens of casualties, opposition campaigners
said.
A bomb destroyed part of the back wall of the compound near the Roman-era
ruins in the city and then a suicide car bomber drove through, detonating the
vehicle and destroying parts of the facility, activists in Palmyra
said.
They said it was not immediately clear how many people had been killed in the
blast and clashes which followed. Video footage, which could not be immediately
verified, showed a large cloud of thick smoke rising in the city.
"The first car bomb struck at around six in the morning. The second one,
which caused the larger explosion, broke through into the compound 10 minutes
later," activist Abu al-Hassan said from the city.
He said tanks in the compound fired shells in response into an adjacent
neighborhood, killing several civilians.
Roadblocks across the city also came under attack.
The state news agency said two "suicide terrorists" blew up cars packed with
explosives near a garage in a residential district, killing and wounding several
people. Among those killed was a woman, it said.
Street demonstrations against Assad's rule erupted in Palmyra at the
beginning of the revolt almost two years ago. But the army has since tightened
control of the city, which is situated near a major oil pipeline
junction.
After a failed uprising in the 1980s led by the Muslim Brotherhood against
the rule of Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, thousands of
political prisoners were executed in a military jail in Palmyra.
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled Bashar al-Assad's forces on the edge of
central Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said, seeking to break his
grip over districts leading to the heart of the capital.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Israeli special forces under cover inside Syria
The sources confirmed a London Sunday Times report from last month that also noted Israeli special forces were on the ground in Syria working as spotters to track the regime’s stocks of chemical and biological weapons.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source told the Times last month. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”
Last month, WND reported Iran had passed nonconventional weapons to Syria for possible use in the event the regime of Bashar al-Assad faces imminent collapse, according to knowledgeable Middle Eastern security officials.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta three weeks ago told reporters the Syrian government seems to have slowed any preparations for the possible use of chemical weapons against so-called rebels fighting Assad’s forces.
“At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off,” Panetta said. “We haven’t seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way.”
U.S. officials had announced the previous week there was evidence indicating Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin gas, a nerve agent, for possible use in bombs.
Syria vehemently denied the chemical weapons charges and instead accused the U.S.-backed rebels of preparing chemical weapons themselves for use against civilians.
The Syrian foreign ministry released a statement that terrorist groups “may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people … after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory” east of Aleppo.
Last month, members of the al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra, which makes up the top leadership of the rebel fighters, reportedly seized control of the Syrian-Saudi Chemicals Company factory near the Syrian town of Safira.
A YouTube video even purportedly showed Syrian rebels testing chemical weapons, although the veracity of the video is in question.
Syria “is defending its people against terrorism, which is supported by known countries, with the United States at the forefront,” Syria’s foreign ministry said.
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