[An Nahar] Syria's armed forces "did not and will not" use chemical weapons, even against jihadist groups, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Thursday. "I stress to you once again: the Syrian army has not, did not and will not use this kind of weapons -- not just against our own people, but even against the forces of Evil that attack our civilians with their mortar rounds," he said.
Muallem spoke at a presser in Damascus two days after a suspected chemical attack left at least 86 people dead in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in northwestern Syria.
The deaths have sparked international outrage with many pointing the finger at the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
, but Muallem cast doubt on the evidence.
"The first air raid conducted by the Syrian army was at 11:30 am (0830 GMT) on that day (Tuesday) and it attacked an arms depot belonging to al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front that contained chemical weapons," he said.
Al-Nusra -- now known as Fateh al-Sham
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
Front -- was once al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate and is the main jihadist rival of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group.
"Al-Nusra Front and ISIS (IS) and other organizations continue to store chemical weapons in urban and residential areas," Muallem added.
The Syrian army denied on Tuesday that it had used chemical weapons against Khan Sheikhun, and Damascus ally Moscow said "toxic substances" may have been released when the army struck a "terrorist warehouse".