Monitor dismisses Russian reports about chemical attack in Syria
Chemical
Cairo/Moscow, Aug. 26, 2018 (dpa/NAN)Russian reports that rebels in Syria’s opposition stronghold of Idlib are planning a chemical attack and will blame the government are “lies,” a war monitor said on Sunday.
Moscow is a major military ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have in recent months made territorial gains against rebels.
The Russian Defence Ministry said foreign specialists had arrived in Idlib to stage a chemical attack using chlorine-laden rockets.
“These are mere allegations and lies aimed at preparing the ground for the battle for retaking Idlib,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The chlorine shipments about which Russia is talking are sent periodically for water plants to sterilize water in Idlib,” he said
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said on Sunday that English-speaking experts had arrived in Idlib to conduct a chemical attack soon, a Russia’s media reported.
“The strike on the settlement of Kafr Zita from rocket launchers using poisonous substances is planned in the next two days,” Konashenkov added.
On Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry suggested that the alleged chemical attack would be fake and filmed for propaganda.
There have been several reported chemical attacks in the course of Syria’s 7-year-old civil war.
Activists and world powers accuse the government of using chemical weapons against its opponents, though Syria has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Damascus insists that it handed over its entire chemical arsenal to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2014.
Idlib, one of rebels’ last strongholds in Syria, is largely controlled by an Islamist alliance led by an al-Qaeda-linked group. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide