Turkey: Kurds Use Same Chemical Weapons as Assad

[Anthea]

Syria war: 'Chlorine attack' on rebel-held Idlib town

Nine people were treated for breathing difficulties after a bomb believed to be filled with chlorine was dropped on a rebel-held town in Syria, medics say.

The Syria Civil Defence said three of its rescue workers were among the casualties from the attack on Saraqeb, in the north-western province of Idlib.

The Syrian opposition said the bomb was dropped by a government helicopter.

Which Syrian opposition? There are so many different groups fighting in that area including ISIS and al Nusra

At least 20 people were reportedly killed in conventional government and Russian air raids elsewhere in Idlib.

Later, government air and artillery strikes on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus left another 24 people dead, the Syria Civil Defence reported.

Nine civilians, including two children, died in 15 strikes on the town of Arbin, while seven were killed when a market in the town of Beit Sawa was hit, it added.

Syrian police sources meanwhile said rebel mortar fire from the enclave killed a woman in the government-controlled Bab Touma district of Damascus' Old City.

Government and Russian forces stepped up their attacks on rebel-held areas after al-Qaeda-linked jihadists said they had shot down a Russian Su-25 warplane over Idlib on Saturday and killed its pilot on the ground after he ejected.

A doctor working for the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), a charity which supports hospitals in rebel-held Syria, told the BBC that Saraqeb was struck by a barrel bomb dropped by a helicopter that had taken off from a nearby government base.

People brought to local hospitals after the attack smelt of chlorine, he said, had suffered breathing problems and irritation in their eyes.

The Syria Civil Defence said it had responded to "an attack with chlorine gas" and that nine people were affected, including three of its rescue workers, commonly known as the White Helmets.

It also posted a video online showing several men stripped to their underwear being sprayed with water as they struggle to breathe.

The Syrian Civil Defence also reported that six civilians had been killed and 10 others injured in conventional air strikes on residential areas of the town of Kafranbel on Sunday night.

It added that the National Hospital in Maarat al-Numan was taken out of action by three air strikes, forcing medics and first responders to evacuate premature babies without any incubators.

A statement from the opposition Syrian Coalition strongly condemned what it called a "barbaric onslaught by the Russian occupation and the Assad regime forces targeting mainly civilians and residential neighbourhoods" in Idlib.

It called on the UN Security Council to take immediate action and pass a resolution "condemning Russia's atrocious crimes against the Syrian people".

Chlorine has many civilian uses, but its use as a weapon is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). If high concentrations of the chemical enter the lungs it can cause death.

There was no immediate comment on Sunday's attacks from Syria's government.

But it dismissed as "lies" accusations from activists and the United States that it had used chlorine in an attack on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area outside Damascus a week ago.

A joint investigation by experts from the United Nations and the Organisations for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded two years ago that government forces had used chlorine as a weapon at least three times between 2014 and 2015.

The experts are also confident that government forces used the nerve agent Sarin in an attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last April, killing more than 80 people.

In 2013, the Syrian government declared that it would destroy its chemical weapons arsenal after hundreds of people died in a Sarin attack in Damascus.

Western powers accused Syria of carrying out that attack, which the government denied, blaming rebel fighters instead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42944033

[Anthea]

This is the same Idlib that Turkey is planning to attack soon

Someone is arming rebel gangs and this has to be stopped

If the armed gangs continue to fight each other it is the Kurds who will suffer the most and ISIS who will benefit the most - the biggest worry is that ISIS will unite with al Nusra

While Turkey is intent on attacking the YPG, it will not encourage the YPG to fight against ISIS in Idlib

I did notice that while the media is complaining about the latest fighting they have TOTALLY ignored Turkey's invasion of Syria and it's assault on the Kurds

[Anthea]

Turkey Says U.S. Ally Kurds Use Same Chemical
Weapons Assad Is Accused of Possessing in Syria
By Tom O'Connor

Turkey has accused Kurdish forces of using chemical weapons against Syrian rebels trying to oust them from a northwestern enclave of control in Syria.

A Twitter account affiliated with Turkey's so-called Operation Olive Branch in Syria claimed Tuesday that forces affiliated with the Democratic Union Party—a leading Syrian Kurdish political party that commands the armed and U.S.-backed People's Protection Units (YPG)—fired a mortar shell containing toxic chlorine gas at Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) insurgents in northern Afrin, injuring up to 20. The Syrian military and rebels have both been accused of using chemical weapons throughout the nearly seven-year conflict, but such charges against Kurds were rare.

"FSA elements were targeted by the terrorist PYD militia with a shell containing poisonous chlorine gas on the Sheikh Kharoz front north of Afrin," the account tweeted, accompanied by four images of what appeared to be men suffering from the alleged attack.

Turkey has split with the U.S.—a fellow Western military alliance NATO member— over the Pentagon's backing for Kurdish fighters alleged to have ties to the militant group known as the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has launched attacks for decades in Turkey. Like Ankara, the U.S. entered the Syrian conflict in support of rebel groups such as the FSA that were trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but CIA funding for the insurgents dwindled as they were overshadowed by more powerful and radical groups such as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

The U.S. invested more heavily in backing Kurdish fighters battling rapid ISIS advances across Syria and Iraq. In October 2015, the U.S. formed the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Arabs and ethnic minorities that has been dominated by the YPG.

As the Syrian Democratic Forces defeated ISIS in northern Syria, Turkey has protested Kurdish presence along its border with Syria and, last month, launched Operation Olive Branch to dislodge the YPG from the Aleppo district of Afrin, which borders Turkey. The U.S. has criticized the Turkish operation for "impeding the task to eliminate ISIS," but has declined Kurdish calls for intervention.

The Turkish reports, which have not yet been corroborated any of the many sides of Syria's multinational, prolonged conflict, came as activists and the Syrian opposition claimed the Syrian military has launched a chlorine gas attack against the last rebel-held province of Idlib and in a small, besieged pocket of control in Eastern Ghouta, outside of Damascus. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley argued last week that Russia shared some blame because it "looked the other way" when its Syrian ally was accused of using chemical weapons.

Syria's acting charge d'affaires to the U.N. Munzer Munzer denied the accusations and blamed Western support for various non-state actors for introducing chemical attacks to Syria, saying "the US, Britain and France bear full responsibility for obstructing the international investigation of the use of toxic chemical materials by covering the crimes of terrorist groups in Syria," according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

http://www.newsweek.com/turkey-says-us- ... ria-800529