Wednesday 20 March 2013

ALEPPO: 25 CIVILIANS KILLED BY FSA IN TOXIC CHEMICAL ROCKET ATTACK


Posted on March 19, 2013 by


25 Killed by Rocket with Chemical Materials Fired by Terrorists in Aleppo Countryside

Mar 19, 2013




ALEPPO,(SANA)- Terrorists on Tuesday launched a rocket containing chemical materials on Khan al-Asal area in Aleppo Countryside.

The explosion of the rocket claimed the lives of 25 martyrs, while 110 citizens were injured, many of them in critical condition.

Foreign Ministry.. Syria has warned of offering Chemical weapons to terrorists

Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Tuesday sent two identical letters to President of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General stating that in a dangerous escalation to the crimes perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups in north Syria, they launched a missile at 7,30 in the morning from Kfar Dael region into Khan al-Asal area in Aleppo governorate.

“The missile fell in a region populated by civilians on a 300- m distance from the post of the Syrian Arab army soldiers,” the Ministry said in the letters.

It added that after the missile was exploded, a dense smoke has occurred which led to direct faint cases among citizens who were subjected to inhale those gases. The missile explosion and the gases have led to the martyrdom of 25 citizens until now while more than 110 others between civilians and soldiers were injured who were admitted to Aleppo hospitals.

“In two previous identical letters sent to President of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General on December 8th, 2012 issued by document 917/2012 S 628/ 67, Syria expressed its serious fear of offering chemical weapons to the terrorists by some countries which support them to accuse the Syrian government of using such weapons,” the Ministry said.

It added that Syria has warned of the danger of failure to confront the possibility of reaching banned kinds of weapons to the hands of al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, particularly after these groups have seized a private factory in East Aleppo which contains tons of the poisonous chlorine material when terrorists threatened to use chemical weapons they make in a lab near Turkish Gaziantep city to claim that the Syrian government has used such weapons.

“Video tapes broadcast at that time on websites have showed the way of manufacturing the poisonous gases through chemical materials received by al-Qaeda from a Turkish company as they were tested on creatures,” the Ministry said.

It affirmed that Syria, who reiterates its commitments announced scores of times through diplomatic channels that it will not use those chemical weapons, if found, against its people, will go ahead in its constitutional commitment to pursue the terrorists and their supporters to maintain the country’s safety and security.

The Ministry went on to say that Syria calls on the international community to seriously move to prevent those terrorist groups from perpetrating more dangerous crimes against Syrian people through putting an end to the military, financial, political and logistic support offered by the countries which back those terrorist groups, particularly Turkey, Qatar and some western states without thinking in the repercussions of that support on the innocent Syrian civilians whom bloods are shed at the hands of the terrorist groups.

Health Ministry Calls on UN to Pay Attention to Terrorists’ Flagrant Crimes against Defenseless Civilians

In a statement, the Health Ministry called upon the UN and its health and humanitarian organizations to pay attention to the flagrant crimes committed by terrorists against defenseless civilians, demanding that they pressure the countries that are openly arming and funding armed groups to stop their support immediately.

The Ministry affirmed its commitment to providing citizens’ health needs, particularly in light of the current events.

The Ministry said that the citizens who were affected by the missile attack in Aleppo and were rushed to the hospitals are suffering from cases of unconsciousness, pupil contraction, neurological symptoms, rapid pulse, breathing irregularity, murmurs in lungs, and general weakness, in addition to a decrease in cholinesterase efficiency in patients’ plasma.

The statement affirmed that all health workers in the hospitals to which the injured civilians were rushed are in a state of alert and that they took all the necessary measures to save the patients’ lives who are being treated, adding that some of them have been discharged after their condition improved.

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H.Said / Mazen / H. Sabbagh
Russia: Use of Chemical Weapons by “Syrian Opposition” Is Very Serious Precedent

Mar 19, 2013




MOSCOW, (SANA)- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said the use of chemical weapons by “the Syrian opposition” is “a very serious precedent”.

“This incident constitutes a very worrying and serious development in the context of the crisis in Syria,” the Ministry said in a statement published on its website.

The statement expressed Russia’s deep concern “over weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of gunmen, which further aggravates the situation and pushes the confrontation in the country to a new level.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry called upon all rational parties in Syria to abandon violence and move to realistic steps towards achieving the political solution through negotiations based on the Geneva Statement adopted by the action group on Syria on June 30.

Terrorists fired a rocket containing chemical substances on Khan al-Asal area in the countryside of Aleppo. Information indicated that 25 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 100 others were injured.

Moscow Voices Regret over Doha Coalition’s Election of So-called Prime Minister

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement that the Syrian opposition’s act of electing a “prime minister” may lead to further instability in Syria, voicing regret over this step which doesn’t help reach a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and contradicts the Geneva statement.

Lukashevich said that this decision increases the danger of division as it not only excludes the supporters of the legitimate current Syrian government, but also excludes the opposition forces that aren’t part of the coalition.

He said that what happened and the statements made by Ghassan Hito, who was elected on Monday by the Doha coalition as a so-called “prime minister,” show that this coalition has shifted from its affirmations in support of dialogue made in February to its hardliner course of its statement in Doha in November 2012.

Lukashevich said that Russia still believes that the way out is through ending all kinds of violence and achieving tangible agreements between the Syrian government and the opposition according to the Geneva statement, reiterating calls to all sides to support this resolution and to refrain from obstructing it.

H. Said / H. Sabbagh
 
Al-Zoubi: Terrorists’ Firing of Rocket with Chemical Substances in Aleppo is Serious Escalation

Mar 19, 2013




DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Minister of Information Omran al-Zoubi held the countries that are arming the ‘opposition’ responsible for the crime committed in Khan al-Asal in Aleppo countryside.

In a statement to the journalists on Tuesday, Minister al-Zoubi said that the terrorists’ firing of a rocket with chemical substances from Da’el area in al-Neirab on Khan al-Asal is a “dangerous escalation”.

He stressed that the governments of Erdogan and Qatar bear legal, moral and political responsibility for the crime which claimed the lives of 25 persons and wounded over 100, the majority of them are in critical condition.

Al-Zoubi said that the crime is a first impact of the Arab League’s decision on the Ministerial Level. “Whoever got involved and announced direct and public military support to the terrorists, whether he was an emir, a minister or a prime minister, must be held to account for the crime,” he stressed.

The Minister indicated that that the terrorists used an internationally-banned weapon, calling upon the international community and the countries which are funding and arming the terrorists to assume their responsibility for this crime.

Al-Zoubi said that using this banned weapon is considered as a “dangerous shift in the course of what is taking place in Syria on the security and military levels”.

He added that the Syrian government has the right to act in accordance with the international law and file a lawsuit against the countries which are arming the opposition with internationally-banned weapons as to face the risks of providing such weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization.

He pointed out that the toxic gases and materials involved in the rocket cause immediate fainting, quiver and death, stressing that this type of weapons usually come under the category of “lethal and internationally-banned weapons”.

Minsiter al-Zoubi reiterated that “This shift in the type and manner of arming the terrorists embodied in using weapons imported from outside Syria across the border with some neighboring countries means that all allegations made by some countries, such as France, UK, Qatar and Turkey on providing logistic and “non-lethal” weapons to the armed terrorist groups in Syria are mere talk to sell the media.”

He stressed that the terrorist crime committed in Aleppo is “an exceptional case, compared to the events in the world at least over the last fifty years, that an internationally-banned weapon being used publically in this manner and from an area where Western and Turkish intelligence, among others are operating, along with the Jabhat al-Nusra members among other armed terrorist groups.”

He lashed out at “the false logic” of Europeans and Americans when they talk about the existence of chemical weapons in Syria that are being prepared to be used by the Syrian military leaderships, stressing that this “horrible crime is a clear indisputable evidence on terrorists using such internationally-banned weapons.”

The Information Minister affirmed that the Syrian armed forces can never use any internationally banned or prohibited weapons, if it possess any, and that Syria is always committed to the agreements and protocols it signed in this regard.

He said that resolutions the Arab Ministerial Council came out with on “arming the opposition” is “an attempt to provide a cover, legitimacy and legality to a standing reality” since arms supplies to the terrorist groups are coming from various countries paid by the Qatari government.

Al-Zoubi stressed that the situation on the ground is good and going well as planned for in terms of confrontation with the terrorist groups and that the morale of the armed forces are at their best contrary to the lies circulated by the media around the clock.

He pointed out that a number of terrorists, as shown in a filmed video, recently conducted tests under the name “Gale” in which they used chemical materials and toxic gases on rats treating to launch chemical attacks.

The armed forces restored security and stability to parts of Khan al-Asal area last November.

Deputy Foreign Minister: Syria Committed to Defending Its People

Later, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Faisal al-Mikdad, said this new crime in Khan al-Asal adds to the record of the terrorist groups that are backed by some countries in the Gulf and the West and Turkey in particular, “which we hold responsible for the crimes against the civilians and the destruction taking place in Syria.”

“We warned throughout the past months of the allegations circulated by some countries and parties on the possibility of us using chemical weapons, and we stressed that in case Syria possessed any such weapons, it wouldn’t use them against its civilians under any circumstances,” al-Mikdad pointed out.

He stressed that Syria is committed to its right to defend its people and combat terrorism and its supporters, calling upon the international community to put an end to the interference of the US, France, Britain and Gulf states in the Syrian affairs and their training and arming of terrorists as this would reflect negatively on the region and the countries backing terrorism.

M. Nassr/ H. Said
 
Mikdad: Crime in Khan al-Asal Adds to Record of Terrorist Groups Supported by Arab Gulf Countries, West and Turkey

Mar 19, 2013



DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Deputy Foreign an Expatriates Minister Dr. Fayssal Mikdad affirmed that the crime committed against civilians by the armed terrorist groups who launched a missile which produced gases in the area adds up to these groups which are supported by some countries in the Arab Gulf, the West and particularly Turkey which is responsible for the crimes committed against civilians and the destruction taking place in Syria.

In statements to journalists following his meeting on Tuesday with ambassadors in Damascus and representatives of international organizations operating in Syria, Mikdad said that this criminal acts proves the correctness of the analysis made by Syria which states that all the propaganda used in past weeks which made false accusations against the Syrian government were in preparation for committing this crime.

He said that the explosion of the missile martyred over 21 civilians and 10 Syrian soldiers who were near the site, adding that citizens who inhaled the gases resulting from the explosion passed out immediately and were rushed to hospitals in Aleppo city.
Mikdad affirmed that Syria will defend its people, continue its war against terrorist, and resume work to end the violence and the attacks committed by terrorist groups and those who arm, support, fund, harbor and send into Syria.

He called on the international community to be vigilant, because the threat posed by terrorist group won’t affect only Syria; rather it’s a prelude that will affect the entire region and the whole world.

“Encouraging terrorism and supporting it in Syria contradicts international law and Security Council resolutions,” Mikdad said, adding that Syria will send a letter to the Security Council requesting it shoulder its responsibly and put an end to the crimes of terrorists and those who support them.

Answering journalists’ questions, Mikdad noted that Syria warned long ago that the allegations on the possibility of using chemical weapons were meant to assist terrorists when they launch their missiles, which is exactly the scenario which was implemented on Tuesday before the convening of the Arab Summit and other international activities in order to mislead world public opinion.

He said that the countries that claimed Syria could use these weapons against its own people were in fact preparing the terrorist group to launch such attacks, pointing out that the authorities are examining the explosion site, the soil there and the patients who are suffering from the results of this criminal acts, and that the results will be presented to the concerned sides.

Responding to a question on the allegations that the Syrian Army launched the missile, Mikdad said that the missile was launched from an area controlled by terrorists and it fell near a Syrian Army location in area under the control of the Army and supporters who are not influenced by the terrorist groups, reiterating that Syria would never use such weapons if it possessed any against its own people and forces.

He said that the international community now knows through reports the true intentions of the terrorist groups and witnessed the tests they conducted on such weapons, particularly after the terrorists seized a factory for making chlorine and possibly used materials from it to produce such a weapon.

Answering a question on media leaks saying that Britain made a decision to transport troops from Afghanistan to the area for the purpose of intervention in Syria, Mikdad said that if such a decision was true, then it’s wrong to consider it or the arming of the opposition by some EU countries including France and Britain to be new decisions, because these countries have been arming the opposition and terrorist groups since the events began, in addition to participating in their operations, planning and executing and the murder of Syrians.
“Syria holds these countries since the first hours of violence responsible for complicity in murdering Syrians and shedding their blood,” he said.

Mikdad called upon the UN and the international community to put an end to the interference by the US, France, Britain and certain involved Arab Gulf countries in Syrian affairs and to the training and arming of terrorists, because this will have negative repercussions on the region and on countries which support terrorism under different justifications which only elicit sarcasm from Syrians and more self-confidence in confronting these countries which want to return Syria to the ages of colonialism, affirming that the steadfast Syrian people will thwart this conspiracy.

In response to the opposition’s political statements, Mikdad said that the political program for resolving the crisis by ending all forms of violence concurrently and by going to the dialogue table which is open to all those who wish to end this crisis through dialogue constitute the answer to all these questions.

H. Sabbagh
 
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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