UNITED STATES PARTNER QATAR BEHIND TRANSFER OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO MILITANTS IN SYRIA

Qatar behind transfer of chemicals to Syria militants: Report

Syrians gather near a hospital following a deadly chemical attack in the city of Aleppo on March 19, 2013.

According to a Saturday report by the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, Qatari officers Fahd Saeed al-Hajiri and Faleh Bin Khalid al-Tamimi were behind the transfer of chemical substances to anti-Syria militants through Ankara.

The Qatari officers were later killed in a suspicious explosion in Somalia in May, the report said.

On March 19, over two dozen people were killed and many others injured when foreign-backed militants fired missiles containing a chemical substance into the Khan al-Assal region in the northwestern city of Aleppo, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.

The new report by the Lebanese daily was based on information received from the security service of an unnamed country in the region. The details of the case had been handed over to the Russian intelligence agency (FSB), the report said.

In an attempt to cover up the issue as Moscow demanded Ankara for explanation, Turkey announced that it had confiscated two kilograms of the nerve agent sarin following the arrest of 12 members of the terrorist al-Nusra Front, the report added.

On May 30, Turkish media reported that two kilograms of sarin gas as well as heavy weapons had been discovered during raids on the homes of 12 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front in Turkey’s southern city of Adana, located some 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the border with Syria.

The United States has claimed that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the militants and thus crossed Washington’s “red line,” while Damascus dismisses the allegations as mere “lies” and “fabrications.”

On May 5, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria said it found testimony from victims and medical staff that shows militants had used the nerve agent sarin in Syria.