U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas

[Sally]

Sad to see something like this used on innocent people. How horrifying it must have been.


U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas

The strongest evidence of chemical weapons use came the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus, U.N. inspectors say.

By Patrick J. McDonnell
December 12, 2013, 8:56 p.m.

BEIRUT — A United Nations report released Thursday concluded that chemical weapons probably were deployed on several occasions in Syria, the most convincing evidence coming from the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus that left hundreds dead.

Chemical weapons may have been deployed in five of seven cases investigated, occurring between March and August, including the Aug. 21 incident, according to the report. The five locations were Ghouta, Khan Assal, Jobar, Saraqeb and Ashrafiah Sahnaya.

Continue reading at:

U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas - latimes.com

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey stallin' fer time so's Assad don't have to hand over his chemical weapons...

Removal of chemical weapons from Syria delayed: watchdog
28 Dec.`13 - The removal of deadly toxins from Syria under an international effort to rid the nation of its chemical arsenal will likely miss a December 31 deadline, the global chemical arms watchdog said.

Bad weather and shifting battlefronts in Syria's civil war have delayed the delivery of essential supplies to sites where the toxins are being prepared to be sent to Latakia port, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said. "A delay will probably occur," Franz Krawinkler, the OPCW's logistics head told Austrian ORF state television on Saturday. "Because of various external influences, including the weather... certain logistical supplies that are needed for this transport, could not be delivered in time."

Syria has agreed to abandon its chemical weapons by next June under a deal proposed by Russia and hashed out with the United States, after an August 21 sarin gas attack that Western nations blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's government. Damascus agreed to transport the "most critical" chemicals, including around 20 tons of mustard nerve agent, out of the northern port of Latakia by December 31 to be safely destroyed abroad away from the war zone.

A Russian diplomat was also quoted as saying on Friday that the deadline would be missed because the toxins that can be used to make sarin, VX gas and other agents still faced a potentially hazardous trip to the port of Latakia. "The removal has not yet begun," Russia's RIA news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying after an international meeting on the chemical arms removal effort. Russia, which has given Assad crucial support during the nearly three-year-old civil conflict in Syria, airlifted 75 armored vehicles and trucks to the nation last week to carry chemicals to Latakia.

Syrian government forces took control of a key highway connecting Damascus to the coast earlier this month, but Ulyanov said the trip could still be treacherous. "They will have to be taken on dangerous roads, there are several dangerous stretches," RIA quoted Ulyanov, head of the Foreign Ministry's disarmament department, as saying. He also said experts from several countries, the United Nations and OPCW had reached a "common understanding of the main points" of a plan to get the toxins from the port into international waters, but gave no details.

Ulyanov said on Wednesday that while they were in Syrian waters, Russian and Chinese warships would escort the Danish and Norwegian container ships that are to carry the toxins away for destruction further from the war zone. The OPWC's Krawinkler said the weather-related closure of the main Beirut-Damascus transport route, as well as constantly shifting battlefronts, were hampering the delivery of logistical supplies and lorries to the toxin storage sites. The head of the OPCW had said earlier this month the deadline could be missed.

Removal of chemical weapons from Syria delayed: watchdog

 

[P F Tinmore]

Sad to see something like this used on innocent people. How horrifying it must have been.


U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas

The strongest evidence of chemical weapons use came the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus, U.N. inspectors say.

By Patrick J. McDonnell
December 12, 2013, 8:56 p.m.

BEIRUT — A United Nations report released Thursday concluded that chemical weapons probably were deployed on several occasions in Syria, the most convincing evidence coming from the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus that left hundreds dead.

Chemical weapons may have been deployed in five of seven cases investigated, occurring between March and August, including the Aug. 21 incident, according to the report. The five locations were Ghouta, Khan Assal, Jobar, Saraqeb and Ashrafiah Sahnaya.

Continue reading at:

U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas - latimes.com

As expected, the 82-page report did not apportion blame for any of the alleged chemical weapons strikes. U.N. guidelines limited the investigators' scope to determining whether chemical weapons had been used, not who may have deployed toxic arms.

U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas - latimes.com

My bet says it is the rebels.

 

[aris2chat]

They know the weapons were fired from areas controlled by the syrian army at the time.

Sad to see something like this used on innocent people. How horrifying it must have been.


U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas

The strongest evidence of chemical weapons use came the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus, U.N. inspectors say.

By Patrick J. McDonnell
December 12, 2013, 8:56 p.m.

BEIRUT — A United Nations report released Thursday concluded that chemical weapons probably were deployed on several occasions in Syria, the most convincing evidence coming from the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus that left hundreds dead.

Chemical weapons may have been deployed in five of seven cases investigated, occurring between March and August, including the Aug. 21 incident, according to the report. The five locations were Ghouta, Khan Assal, Jobar, Saraqeb and Ashrafiah Sahnaya.

Continue reading at:

U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas - latimes.com

As expected, the 82-page report did not apportion blame for any of the alleged chemical weapons strikes. U.N. guidelines limited the investigators' scope to determining whether chemical weapons had been used, not who may have deployed toxic arms.

U.N. inspectors in Syria suspect chemical weapons used in five areas - latimes.com

My bet says it is the rebels.

 

[waltky]

First Portion Of Syria Chemical Weapons Removed...

First portion of chemical stockpile removed from Syria
January 7,`14 — The first batch of materials from a chemical stockpile has been removed from Syria and loaded on a Danish ship, initiating the process of transferring it for destruction, the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Tuesday.

“A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today,” Sigrid Kaag, the head of international weapons inspectors in Syria, said.

The vessel will remain at sea awaiting the arrival of additional chemical materials at the port. Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from China, Denmark, Norway and Russia. Syria agreed to dispose of its weapons in line with a Russian-U.S. deal, following international outrage and the threat of military strikes after hundreds died in a chemical attack on a rebel-held area outside Damascus in August.

The chemicals initially were scheduled to be removed from the country by Dec. 31, but the move was delayed because of the ongoing war. The stockpile would be transferred later to a U.S. ship for destruction at sea. According to the plan, the priority chemicals are to be destroyed by the end of March and the entire arsenal eliminated by the end of June.

First portion of chemical stockpile removed from Syria - The Washington Post

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right Assad knows he better get crackin' `cause Obama ain't gonna put up with his foolishness...

Eighty percent of Syrian chemical weapons shipped out: monitors
Sat Apr 19, 2014 - Syria has shipped out or destroyed approximately 80 percent of its declared chemical weapons material, the head of the international team overseeing the disarmament process said on Saturday.

Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator of the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said if the momentum was sustained, Syria should be able to meet its April 27 deadline to hand over all declared chemical agents. "The renewed pace in movements is positive and necessary to ensure progress towards a tight deadline," Kaag said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed with the United States and Russia to dispose of the chemical weapons - an arsenal which Damascus had never formally acknowledged - after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of the capital last August.

Washington and its Western allies said it was Assad's forces who unleashed the nerve agent, in the world's worst chemical attack in a quarter-century. The government blamed the rebel side in Syria's civil war, which is now in its fourth year.

Eighty percent of Syrian chemical weapons shipped out: monitors | Reuters