Background to today's "chemical attack"

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Syria finds chemical weapons workshop in Ghouta

The Syrian military has found a workshop used by foreign-backed militants to make chemical weapons, Russian media say. The workshop was discovered in a recently-liberated area in Eastern Ghouta where Syrian troops are fighting foreign-backed extremists and Takfiri terrorists, Russian news agencies reported Monday, citing a field commander.

The militants holed up in Eastern Ghouta have been raining rockets on the Syrian capital, killing and injuring many civilians over the past weeks.

Most recently, the official Syrian Arab News Agency said terrorists based in the area had attacked the capital’s al-Kabbas neighborhood with rockets, killing two civilians.

The US and its western and regional allies have often pointed their fingers at the Syrian government for chemical attacks, which Damascus has consistently denied. The US, along with Britain and France, has threatened military action against the Syrian government if allegations of chemical attacks are proven.

On Sunday, though, US Defense Secretary James Mattis repeated Washington and its allies’ allegations against the Syrian government, warning that it would be “very unwise” for it to use chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta and elsewhere.

Syria surrendered its chemical stockpiles in 2014 under the supervision of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The discovery of the workshop is yet another revelation in a prolonged debate on who used chemical weapons in Syria.

Back in 2012, a video was released showing the terrorists testing a chemical substance on lab rabbits and threatening to use it against pro-government Syrians.

Civilian evacuations

Russia, which is helping Damascus curb foreign-backed militancy in the Arab country, has designated four safe passage routes in Eastern Ghouta after a ceasefire was declared across Syria by the UN Security Council.

The militants in Eastern Ghouta are, however, blocking civilians from leaving the region, using them as human shields in the face of army advances. Late on Sunday, the Russian military said it had managed to evacuate 52 civilians, including 26 children, from Eastern Ghouta after talks with local authorities.

The civilians, inhabitants of the town of Misraba, were taken to a temporary refugee camp, where they were receiving medical aid, the military said in a statement.

Syrian TV also said another group of civilians had left Eastern Ghouta through a corridor established by the Syrian army.

It broadcast footage showing a group of men, women and children who left the town of Madyara on Monday. The town was captured by Syrian troops on Sunday.

48 suicide belts seized in E. Ghouta, evacuation bus bombings thwarted – Russian MOD

RT,

30 April, 2018

The Russian military has thwarted dozens of suicide bomb attacks targeting buses of civilians fleeing Syria's eastern Ghouta, Russia's Defense Minister said. Forty-eight explosive belts have been seized within three days.

The buses packed with civilians that are leaving Syria's besieged enclave in their hundreds have been increasingly targeted by terrorists, who seek to blend in with the crowds to sneak explosives on board. The Russian military received tip-offs about the terrorist plots every day, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during a meeting with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Thursday.

"Four days ago, we received a tip-off that a provocation was being prepared involving suicide belts. Suicide bombers were supposed to be seated in buses together with refugees. Unfortunately, this information was confirmed," Shoigu said, as cited by TASS.

The Russian military managed to foil the plot that could have resulted in mass civilian death. They retrieved seven belts on Monday, thirty-two on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday.

"It's not hard to imagine what could have happened if these suicide bombers blew themselves up in the buses with women and children," the minister added.

Russia's efforts to ensure a safe passage of civilians trapped in eastern Ghouta have also been plagued by a continuing misinformation campaign in support of the jihadists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after his meeting with de Mistura.

"Unfortunately, the operation – and we got used to it – has been accompanied by a veiled campaign in support of the militants," Lavrov noted. Fake news spread by the rebels included reports of people going hungry as a result of the siege, reports of indiscriminate civilian bombings, including with banned weaponry, as well as allegations of the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons, Lavrov said, adding that the latter claim seems absurd "even from the point of military tactics."

READ MORE: 40 tons of chemical weapons left by militants found in Syria – Russian MoD

Refuting reports of mass arrests and a crackdown on those who had escaped the enclave, Lavrov said they were recycled allegations similar to those spread during the Aleppo liberation, which turned out to be myths.

Speaking of the de-escalation zones, of which there are four, including the one in Ghouta, Lavrov said that there are no plans to create more of them. He said he hopes that the ceasefire in Ghouta will soon take hold again, despite repeated violations by the militants who refused to cede from Al-Nusra, thus flouting their commitments made under the ceasefire deal.

As much as 90 percent of eastern Ghouta has already been liberated, Lavrov said, adding that he believes that life would return to normal in the suburb "in the nearest future." Eleven thousand militants and 130,000 civilians have left Ghouta since the start of the evacuations, according to Shoigu.

Speaking about Syria's future, de Mistura stressed the importance of the decisions made at the Syrian National Dialogue Congress meeting in Sochi in January.

Noting that the Congress "had a very important role" in supporting the Geneva peace process, de Mistura urged all parties involved to act in order to bolster it. The creation of a constitutional committee charged with drafting a new constitution for Syria should not be stalled, the special envoy said, adding that its makeup should be announced as soon as possible. The decision to create a 150-member committee was made possible through the agreement reached between some 1,393 delegates that were present in Sochi.

The special envoy also pledged UN support to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis in Raqqa and other Syrian regions. Russia has repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of humanitarian assistance to the population of Raqqa, the former de-facto capital of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL), with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for an investigation into the massive US-led coalition air strikes on residential areas in the city in a recent interview.

The UN will send an expert team from Damascus to Raqqa to evaluate the situation and determine what kind of humanitarian assistance to provide, Mistura said.