SyriaIsrael's military intelligence: Assad forces used chemical weapons

Medical personnel treat chemical weapon victim // Source: sahabnews.ir

Israeli military intelligence for the first time publicly said that the Syrian military used chemical weapons in an attack on civilians on 19 March.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Research in Tel Aviv, Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of AMAN’s (Israel’s military intelligence) research division, said: “To the best of our professional understanding, the [Syrian] regime made use of a lethal chemical weapon on a number of occasions, including the 19 March event.”

It was not initially clear who used the chemical weapon on 19 March near the city of Aleppo. The rebels accused the Syrian regime, while the regime accused the rebels. There was also some confusion as to the chemical used. Some Western experts, suggesting that the weapon used was probably chlorine-based, concluded it could have been the rebels who launched it (see “Rebels, not the Syrian army, fired last week’s chemical weapon: experts,” HSNW, 25 March 2013).

Haaretz quoted Brun to say: “Initially, the Syrian regime accused the rebels of using chemical weapons in the [19 March] incident, but Western sources have determined that the attack was carried out by the Assad regime.”

Brun noted that there were several indications supporting this conclusion, some of them public, like photos of those who died or who were injured in the attack. The victims had foam forming on their lips, their eyes were tightly shut, and they exhibited other symptoms of a sarin nerve gas attack, rather than an attack by a chlorine-based weapon.

Syria has vast quantities of sarin gas.

Brun was asked about the likelihood of more instances of chemical weapon use by the regime against the rebels or against Israel, and about the possibility of the rebels themselves using chemical weapons if they gain control over such weapons.

Brun responded that “In Syria there is a huge arsenal of chemical weapons, more than 1,000 tons of chemical weapons material, thousands of aerial bombs, and very many warheads and surface-to-surface missiles which can be equipped with chemical weapons.”

Brun said that the several instances of chemical use by the regime offer a clear indication that these weapons are already being used, and that it was disturbing that the world has so far chosen not to say or do something about such use. Such passivity may “signal that the use of chemical weapons is legitimate,” he said.

Brun noted that there is a “disturbing” possibility that chemical weapons will find their way to terrorist organizations, “which do not conduct normal calculations of gains and losses.”