Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Reciprocal Atrocities

"According to information at our disposal, the production of Basha'ir 3 unguided projectiles was started in February 2013 by the so-called Basha'ir al-Nasr brigade affiliated with the Free Syrian Army.
"...there is every reason to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal."
Vitaly Churkin, Russian UN ambassador
This Tuesday, July 9, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels running during heavy clashes with Syrian soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. Syria is entering its third year of a war that began as an uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)
This Tuesday, July 9, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels running during heavy clashes with Syrian soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. Syria is entering its third year of a war that began as an uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC) — AP

The deadly civil war between the Syrian Alawite regime and the largely Sunni Syrian rebels has seen each side claiming that the other has been using chemical weapons to further their cause in destroying the resistance of the other. Russia has been sturdily supporting the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the Free Syrian Army, and believes through research they have conducted that it is the rebel side, aided by Islamist insurgents who had flocked to Syria who have engaged in chemical warfare.

On the other side of the equation, France, Britain and the United States all insist that their investigation has revealed clear evidence that it is the regime that has been using chemical weapons on their opponents. Narratives from attending physicians appear to confirm that rebel militias have indeed come under noxious chemical attacks; all the symptoms of such poisoning have been validated.

One must then come to the conclusion that claims on either sides, blaming both the regime and the rebels are accurate enough. Both have been indulging in the use of what is often described as weapons of mass destruction, although it is clear that neither side has been able to figure out how to use the chemicals as a mass-destruction tool; the use has been localized and its use represents a limited target with limited damage. As yet.

While the U.S., Britain and France steadfastly assert that they have seen no evidence whatever that the Free Syrian Army has used sarin or any other chemical weapons, that their use has been restricted to the Syrian regime, Mr. Churkin insists otherwise. He explained that Moscow was invited by the Syrian regime to investigate after a UN team of chemical weapons was barred from entry to Syria to do their own study.

According to Russian experts samples taken from the impact site in Aleppo had been analyzed at a laboratory in Russia whose legitimacy could be judged by its certification by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. That analysis indicated without question that the rocket that hit Khan al-Assal "was not industrially manufactured, and was filled with sarin"; not a military standard weapon.

And now that Russia has so kindly affirmed the situation in favour of the Syrian regime, it has extended an invitation to Ake Sellstrom, head of the United Nations fact-finding mission, and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane to visit Damascus for 'talks' on the Khan al-Assal attack.

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posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 10, 2013

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