Opposition groups are sounding alarms suggesting that the Bashar al-Assad regime is once again planning to use chemical weapons. A spokesman for the Syrian National Council described the details:
Two convoys transporting chemical weapons warheads were moved sometime in the last 24 hours, and have reached their destinations, said Khaled al-Saleh, spokesman for the Syrian National Council… Al-Saleh said this information has come to his group from sympathetic officers in the Syrian military in the last 24 hours… They said three convoys carrying chemical warheads left the place where they are normally based — in Qutaifah, close to the border with Lebanon — and that two have reached their destinations: Dumair airport near Damascus and Izra near Darah.
CBS could not verify the claims.
A map of the relevant areas is embedded below, along with a video of recently uploaded videos showing the regime using fixed wing aircraft to atack areas in and around Daraa. A month ago, Al Arabiya reported that the leader of the SNC visited rebel held areas of the region. In recent weeks Iranian media outlets have reported that the Syrian army has seized territory in the area.
Analysis that emerged after what is widely suspected to be Syrian army use of chemical weapons in East Ghouta is triggering concerns that Daraa may indeed be targeted by chemical weapons. According to some scenarios, Assad’s forces deployed chemical weapons as part of a campaign to insulate strategic routes to and from Damascus from particularly tenacious rebel forces. Daraa, in the country’s south, potentially fits the description.
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