'Assad Has Chemicals that Can Eradicate Entire Towns'
Assad has enough sarin to "eradicate the whole of Damascus," says a former scientist for the Syrian chemical weapons program.
First Publish: 5/24/2013, 11:31 PM
President Bashar al-Assad
AFP photo
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has enough of
the nerve agent sarin to "eradicate the whole of Damascus, Homs, Hama,
and Aleppo," a former scientist for the Syrian chemical weapons program says.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of
anonymity after he fled Syria, the chemist said that the regime is not
likely to unleash its chemical stockpiles unless it “no longer cares
about the world knowing."
"If the regime is to fire a Scud-B with a chemical warhead filled with sarin, the missile would create a chemical cloud in the atmosphere that is 3km long and 500m wide, which could be fatal to all people under it," the chemist told Al Jazeera.
He claimed that the regime has only used sarin
nerve gas in small quantities to halt rebel advances in four towns in
the suburbs of Damascus, in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud district, in Idlib's
Saraqeb town and in Homs' al-Khalidiyeh district.
"The intention was to incapacitate rebels and force
them out of strategic areas, while keeping the deaths among their ranks
limited," the chemist said, who added that he was speaking out "to
dispel the myths on chemical weapons in Syria."
The Syrian government has managed to keep
information about its chemical weapons largely beyond the reach of
outsiders, and to keep its scientists under heavy surveillance, even
keeping some under 24-hour guard.
The exiled chemist told Al Jazeera that
Syria’s stockpile comprises 700 tons of sarin agent, at least 3,000
aerial bombs that could be filled with chemical agents and more than 100
chemical warheads for Scud missiles.
Consistent with other intelligence reports, the
chemist said that Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal also contains mustard
gas and what experts describe as the deadliest of all nerve agents, VX.
Some Western intelligence agencies believe that
Syria also has access to tabun nerve agent, but the chemist said these
reports are untrue.
The regime and rebels have accused each other of
using chemical weapons on several occasions, and the issue has come to
dominate recent debate about the two-year-long conflict.
The U.S. and Britain say they have "credible evidence" that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, and Turkey said its hospitals treated patients exposed to chemical attack.
The chemist said he fled the country before
December 23, 2012, when the first claims emerged about the regime’s use
of chemical weapons in the neighborhood of Khaldiyeh, in the city of
Homs. The neighborhood is strategic because it divides Sunnis and
largely pro-government Alawites.
A diluted mix of sarin and isopropyl alcohol was
likely used in December 2012, according to the scientist, but he cast
doubt on the claims of the regime and rebels that chemical weapons were
used in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo on March 19.
"When medics report [a] very disgusting smell, the
way they did in Khan al-Assal, it is obvious it’s not coming from
chemical weapons," the chemist told Al Jazeera. "The fact that patients only suffered from suffocation and no other symptoms further confirms that it was not sarin."
The chemist said what was likely fired was
military-grade tear gas, used as a substitute for chemical agents. The
chemist explained that during the two-year conflict, the regime has
experimented with mixing different gases - like sarin and tear gas - in
order to create a mélange of symptoms that would make the cause hard to identify.
"When opposition activists report different kinds of symptoms
resulting from the different gases, it becomes hard to believe them.
Some opposition fighters report a burning sensation in the eyes, raising
the question as to whether this was tear gas or nerve gas," the chemist
told Al Jazeera.
The scientist said the regime had convinced him that the weapons he was working on were for self-defense against Israel.
"It was our dogma that we were creating the
equivalent of Israel’s nuclear weapons," the chemist said. "Never were
we told that the weapons could be used inside the country."
Labels: Atrocities, Chemical Weapons, Conflict, Israel, Security, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, May 25, 2013
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