Syrian State-Run Media Accuses US Intel of Staging Fake Chemical Attacks

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported Tuesday that, citing its sources, US intelligence services are continuing to organize staged operations with chemical weapons against Syrians.

According to the Syrian committee on the elimination of chemical weapons, quoted by SANA, US intelligence services are teaching Syrian families to show the aftermath of chemical attacks at a Syrian base.

"The US and its intelligence and military services continue to prepare staged operations in some parts of Syria, pushing their agents and their tools to use chemical weapons against innocent Syrian citizens, accusing the Syrian state of deception," the source said, as cited by the agency.

According to the media outlet, Syria condemned this "new staging" and confirmed that some other Western countries have been participating in it, namely France and the United Kingdom.

SANA's source also noted that the committee had confirmed receiving certain information that terrorists who had previously collaborated with Daesh* are now working with the United States and the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" (SDF), taking away families from the districts under SDF control to the American base in the area of the al-Jafra field to prepare them for depicting the consequences of shelling using chemical weapons by the Syrian army.

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In early April, the US and its allies accused Damascus of a chemical attack in the Syrian city of the Douma. Moscow rejected information about an alleged chlorine bomb being dropped by the Syrian military after the country's experts visited the location of the purported attack and didn't find any evidence. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that the aim of these accusations was to shield the terrorists and justify possible airstrikes by external powers.

The United States, Britain and France on the morning of April 14, struck Syrian government facilities, which they believe were used to produce chemical weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attacks as an act of aggression against a sovereign state.

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The Syrian authorities have repeatedly stated that they have never used chemical weapons against civilians or terrorists, and that their entire chemical arsenal was removed from the country under the supervision of the OPCW.    

*Daesh - a terrorist group banned in Russia

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