The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

US to investigate new Syrian chemical attack claims

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The White house said Monday, that they have indications to believe a toxic chemical, most likely chlorine, was used in Syria this month.

“We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical, probably chlorine, in Syria this month, in the opposition-dominated village of Kafr Zita,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

“We are examining allegations that the government was responsible.”

The State Department spokeswoman Jen Psakialso pointed to the indications of a chemical attack.

“We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical. We are examining allegations that the government was responsible,” said Jen Psaki.

“Obviously there needs to be an investigation of what’s happened here,” she added.

“We’re examining allegations. We’re obviously looking at the facts on the ground. We shouldn’t forget the context of what the regime has been capable of in the past,” Psaki stated.

A military source in the Syrian opposition confirmed to me that the U.S. administration will not make a move this time as well. U.S. is concerned about more important files than Syria’s, such as the ongoing events in Ukraine.

He also confirmed the absence of the U.S. role after the failure of Geneva Conference 2. Moreover, the military source denied that the victories claimed to be acheived by the regime are fake and stressed that the armed opposition, if it got enough military support from the Friends of Syria, the situation therein would have different from what it is today.

Over fears that getting involved in Syria would lead to a repetition of failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US President Barack Obama has defended his administration’s decision not to use military force in Syria, saying that the United States has its limits.

“It is, I think, a false notion that somehow we were in a position to, through a few selective strikes, prevent the kind of hardship we’ve seen in Syria,” Obama told broadcaster CBS in Rome last March.

“It’s not that it’s not worth it,” he added. “It’s that after a decade of war, the United States has limits.”

Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists reported that helicopters dropped chlorine gas on the town of Kafr Zita in the Hama province.

Other activists posted videos and photos of dozens of people struggling to breathe as a result of a toxic substance, Reuters reported

Videos posted online claimed to show an unexploded canister suspected to contain chlorine gas, Aljazeera reported.

Reuters and Aljazeera could not verify the authenticity of the video and photos.

On March, Israeli officials claimed that chemical attack had been launched in Damascus’s eastern Harasta neighborhood.

According to Israel National News, a senior defense official said that Israel has “strong evidence” of an attack in Damascus’s eastern Harasta neighborhood on March 27; the weapon is thought to be a “neutralizing chemical” that injures, but does not kill.

In another context, Syria’s opposition leader Ahmed Jarba, has requested more aid and support from Saudi Arabia for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

According to AFP news, Jarba made the request while meeting with Saudi Crown Pince Salman bin Abdulaziz and Foreign MInister Prince Saud Al-Faisal Tuesday.

“The talks between Jarba and his Saudi counterparts focused on continuing the Saudi aid and on the need to strengthen the capacities of the Free Syrian Army (FSA),” Jarba’s advisor Monser Akbik told AFP.

Akbik explained that more aid is needed “to face the increasing number of mercenaries and militias belonging to Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Iraqis fighting alongside the Syrian regime.”

Significantly, Saudi Arabia has served as the opposition’s primary financial backer since the start of the Syrian civil war, which began with peaceful protests against the regime in 2011.