« Antagonizing Palestinians, Australia’s linguistic blunder snowballsUnbearable oppression forces Palestinians to kidnap Israelis »

Syrian army foils chemical attack on Damascus - reported

June 17th, 2014

syriaalakahbarDon't expect a rush to verify this report by the United Nations or any NATO members. In the broadest sense, a verification would mean that the rulers of the United States, Great Britain, France, and other Euro powers were wholly deficient or massively deceptive in their profound assurance that the Syrian government had gassed its own people in August 2013. It would mean that the Obama administration's massive attack planned against Syria was callous and reckless beyond words. It would mean that Seymour Hersh was right when he linked Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's government with the August 2013 attack in East Ghouta (The Red Line and the Rat Line). This article in Al Akahbar English cries out for an investigation that will never be. Failure to investigate should be seen for what it is.

Michael Collins

Syrian army foils chemical attack on Damascus By: Racha Abi Haidar
AL-AKAHBAR English, Buirut June 16, 2014 Creative Commons
Image: Al-Nusra acquired 16 canisters of Sarin gas with a
spread radius of 500 meters. Photo taken on October
30, 2014. (Photo: AFP)

On Saturday, the Syrian army and its allies foiled a plan by al-Nusra Front in collaboration with Turkish intelligence, to stage a sarin gas attack in the Syrian capital during President Bashar al-Assad’s inauguration.

On Saturday, the Syrian army and its allies carried out a surprise rocket attack on a farm in the region of Drousha on the outskirts of Qatna, a town in Damascus southern countryside. The attack hit a meeting hall in which 11 al-Nusra Front leaders were present. Well-placed sources told Al-Akhbar that the men were holding their final meeting “before carrying out a sarin gas attack on the capital on the day President Bashar al-Assad was going to be sworn in.”

The sources said that surveillance of the armed groups earlier had revealed certain information, in light of which the Syrian army decided not to wait for the militants to act, but to carry out a rapid preemptive attack on the groups charged with planning and execution. This is exactly what happened on Saturday, when reconnaissance teams confirmed the presence of 11 al-Nusra Front commanders at the meeting, including the men known as Abu Hanifa; Abu Saleh; Abu Dardaa al-Souri; Said al-Tunisi; and the army defector Captain Ibrahim al-Hamwi. The Syrian air force was called in, and the building where the meeting was being held was completely leveled.

According to information obtained by Al-Akhbar, al-Nusra Front was able to obtain 16 vials of sarin gas, each with a dispersal radius of 500 meters. The toxins were acquired from a private cache in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

The sources said the broker was a high-level Turkish intelligence officer, who had helped smuggle the vials to al-Nusra Front for the planned attack. The plan, the sources added, was to distribute the vials across the Damascus countryside, including in districts such as al-Tadamun, al-Hajar al-Aswad, and the southern parts of al-Qadam. The sources also said the armed groups underwent training on launching locally made rockets at a number of targets in the capital, including civilian concentrations, the People’s Assembly, the General Intelligence headquarters, and the National Security headquarters.

A Syrian security source confirmed to Al-Akhbar that the chemical plot follows several foiled attacks that had been planned to take place in Damascus during the presidential election. These plots involved car bombs and rockets directed at the capital, though this has not been leaked to the media until now. The source added, “There has been a qualitative development in the work of the Syrian security services, especially with the use of sophisticated equipment and the trend towards automation of information,” something he said helped thwart many attacks recently.

The opposition’s history with sarin

Al-Nusra Front has a history in manufacturing and deploying the poison gas, which is designated by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

In May 2013, the Turkish security services arrested 12 members of al-Nusra, seizing two kilograms of sarin gas they had in their possession. At the time, the media reported that this took place in the city of Adana in southern Turkey, noting that the security services seized incriminating documents and ammunition found on the suspects.

In April 2014, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, quoting former U.S. intelligence officials, wrote that it was Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s “people” who were behind the chemical attack in August 2013 in the East Ghouta. In the same article, he mentioned that the plan was to stage the attack in Damascus or near Damascus when UN inspectors, who had arrived to the capital on August 18 to investigate previous use of sarin gas, were there. The former U.S. intelligence official quoted by Hersh said, “Our senior military officers have been told…that the sarin was supplied through Turkey…[and that] the Turks also provided the training in producing the sarin and handling it,” adding that the principal evidence for the claims about the Syrian regime’s responsibility for the attack in Ghouta had come from the Turkish “post-attack.”

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

Follow Racha on Twitter @RachaAbiHaidar

Article link: http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/20195
Creative Commons

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • Robert David A global exposé of how corporations distort science, erase truth, and turn human death into quarterly growth. I. Introduction: When Truth Becomes a Liability In an age when algorithms dictate belief and lobbyists author legislation, truth…
  • Robert David Polluters don’t just dump toxins. They dump stories—engineered by billion-dollar PR firms. They Poisoned the Planet—Then Hired Spin Doctors to Make You Forget When a chemical spill poisons a town, when a pipeline ruptures in a fireball,…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Switzerland got that way through NEUTRALITY Remarks at Neutrality Colloquium: A Call to Action for Active Neutrality & World Peace, June 26-27, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. I grew up in a town in the United States that…
  • Fred Gransville I. The Fluoride Question For decades, fluoride has had an uncontested official story: it is a beneficial, even benevolent substance—vital to healthy teeth. In toothpaste tubes to water supplies, fluoride has been presented as a dental…
  • Tracy Turner #SCOTUScorruption #FascistAmerica #EndCitizensUnited Bush started it. Obama enabled it. Trump perfected it. And the Court? It never checked power—it built it. I. Opening Jab: The Judicial Illusion "They wear robes to appear impartial. But…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Carl von Clausewitz The focal questions about war In dealing with both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars…
  • By Tracy Turner What begins as an assault on immigrants ends as an assault on the Constitution itself. The Constitution Is Not a Loophole Come the summer of 2025, the sitting president of America is pushing the limits of constitutional tolerance yet…
  • By Tracy Turner I. The Faustian Bargain “Kids can’t eat pronouns. Families can’t pay bills with gender-neutral bathrooms.” Somewhere between Occupy Wall Street and “Latinx Heritage Month,” the Democratic Party lost the plot—and with it, the nation. In…
  • Fred Gransville 1. Russian Summer Offensive Advances on Multiple Axes Cutting-edge drone warfare Russia is deploying "unjammable" fiber-optic–linked drones across Donbas, Sumy, and Kharkiv, allowing coordinated tactical advances. These UAVs have enabled…
  • Fred Gransville I. Introduction The Lungs of the Earth Are Being Stabbed from All Sides In June 2025, the Amazon and Orinoco basins—twin arteries of South America's ecological soul—are hemorrhaging under a coordinated assault. These are not isolated…
July 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

  XML Feeds

CCMS
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi