Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Syria was said to have undergone its first chemical
weapons attack.

The regime of President Bashar Assad and Sunni rebels both said that a CW
attack took place on March 19 near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The regime and the rebels blamed each other for the strike.

“Everyone who used it, we are against him, whatever he is,” Syrian
National Council chairman Mouaz Al Khatib said.

“We are against killing civilians using chemical weapons, but let us wait some time to have accurate information.”

Russia confirmed the CW attack, but the United States, which in 2013
ruled out such a prospect, refused to do so. Israel’s media quoted officials
as saying that CW appeared to have been used in northern Syria.

“I have no information at this time to corroborate any claims that
chemical weapons have been used in Syria,” U.S. Defense Department spokesman George Little said.

The Assad regime said the strike killed 31 people, including 10 Syrian
Army soldiers, in Khan Al Assal, which contains a military facility. Syrian
Information Minister Omran Al Zoubi said rebels, who underwent recent
training, fired a rocket with CW.

“Whoever got involved and announced direct and public military support
to the terrorists, whether he was an emir, a minister or a prime minister,
must be held to account for the crime,” Al Zoubi said.

Syria’s official Sana news agency released photographs of people in a
hospital, some of them on stretchers. The rebels denied any responsibility,
and said a Syrian missile that struck Khan Al Assal contained poisonous gas.

In 2012, a Syrian government spokesman acknowledged a CW arsenal.
Western intelligence sources said the Assad regime hosts some 1,000 tons
of CW agents.

  Aleppo, Bashar Assad, George Little, Khan Al Assal, Russia, Syrian National Council