Rebel possession of chemical weapons

Rebels admit to using chemical weapons?
There are many claims of the rebels admitting to using or possessing chemical weapons. Here is one such video: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 12:23, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
 * SYRIA Jihadist Admits To Having & Using Toxic Gas, Justifies Killing Women & Children – VexZeen, Aug 30, 2013

So this is a second story, not a new find: Video: Syrian Rebel Admits Using Chemical Weapons --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:25, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Arrests in Turkey

 * Report: Police foil al-Nusra bomb attack planned for Adana - Today’s Zaman, May 20, 2013
 * Turkey finds sarin gas in homes of suspected Syrian Islamists – reports – RT, May 30, 2013, updated September 14, 2013
 * Syrian rebel groups sought to buy materials for chemical weapons, prosecutors say – Doğan News Agency, Hurriyet Daily News, September 12, 2013
 * ''A public prosecutor completed his indictment as part of the probe into the chemicals seized in the southern province of Hatay on Sept. 12, claiming that jihadist Syrian rebel groups were seeking to buy materials that could be used to produce highly toxic sarin gas.
 * ''The indictment, which included transcripts of several phone conversations between the suspects involved, said that a 35-year-old Syrian citizen, identified as Hytham Qassap, established a connection with a network in Turkey in order to procure chemical materials for the al-Nusra Front and jihadist Ahrar al-Sham Brigades.
 * ''The indictment rejected the legitimacy of the suspects’ claim that they were unaware the chemicals they tried to obtain could be used to produce sarin gas.
 * ''The indictment also contained Qassap’s testimony where he confessed his links with the Ahrar al-Sham Brigades and moved to the city of Antakya following the instructions of its leader, Abu Walid. “After I arrived in Antakya, other rebel groups had come into contact with me. While some had asked me for medicine and other humanitarian aid supplies, others wanted to obtain military equipment,” he told prosecutors.
 * ''A total of 11 people were arrested during the investigation launched late May after police received a tip suggesting that some Syrian rebel groups were looking to procure materials that could be used to produce chemical weapons.
 * U.S. MILITARY CONFIRMS REBELS HAD SARIN – F. MICHAEL MALOOF, WDN, September 12, 2013
 * ''Classified document shows deadly weapon found in home of arrested Islamists
 * ''In a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S. military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel Islamists fighting in Syria.
 * ''The document says sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq made its way into Turkey and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack last March on civilians and Syrian military soldiers in Aleppo.
 * ''It revealed that AQI had produced a “bench-scale” form of sarin in Iraq and then transferred it to Turkey.
 * ''A U.S. military source said there were a number of interrogations as well as some clan reports as part of what the document said were “50 general indicators to monitor progress and characterize the state of the ANF/AQI-associated Sarin chemical warfare agent developing effort.”
 * Iran regrets US ignorance of warning on chemical arms in Syria, Press TV, September 12, 2013
 * Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has expressed regret that the United States ignored the Islamic Republic’s warning on the access by militant groups fighting in Syria to dangerous chemical weapons.
 * “We have indications and we have shared those indications in the past with the United States and with others … [that] extremely dangerous chemical weapons were being smuggled into Syria to armed groups that are fighting the Syrian people and the Syrian government,” Zarif told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
 * The Iranian minister noted that “unfortunately” the US did not give any response to Iran’s warning.
 * Turkish prosecutor indicts six jihadists for alleged attempts to acquire chemicals with intent to produce sarin – The Kurdish Cause, September 12, 2013
 * Turkey intercepts chemical shipment from Syria – al Akhbar, November 4, 2013
 * ''Turkish authorities have seized a large quantity of chemicals from a convoy trying to illegally enter the country from Syria, which "could be transformed into weapons," the army said Sunday.
 * Turkey indicts 11 linked with Syria militants caught with sarin gas – PressTV, September 14, 2013
 * Syria Rebels Ordered 10 Tons of Sarin Nerve Agent in Turkey – FNA, September 14, 2013

Suspects released & cover-up

 * CHP deputies: Gov’t rejects probe into Turkey’s role in Syrian chemical attack - Today's Zaman, October 21, 2015
 * ''Erdem also noted that the prosecutor's office conducted detailed technical surveillance and found that an al-Qaeda militant, Hayyam Kasap, acquired sarin, adding: "Wiretapped phone conversations reveal the process of procuring the gas at specific addresses as well as the process of procuring the rockets that would fire the capsules containing the toxic gas. However, despite such solid evidence there has been no arrest in the case. Thirteen individuals were arrested during the first stage of the investigation but were later released, refuting government claims that it is fighting terrorism," Erdem noted.
 * Turkish Whistleblowers Corroborate Seymour Hersh Report of False Flag Sarin Gas Attack in Syria - Peter Lee, October 21, 2015
 * EXCLUSIVE: Sarin materials brought via Turkey & mixed in Syrian ISIS camps – Turkish MP to RT - RT, Dec 14, 2015
 * Eren Erdem: IŞİD sarin gazını Türkiye’den aldı - Çağdaş Ses, Dec 14, 2015
 * Turkish MP faces treason charges after telling RT ISIS used Turkey for transiting sarin - RT, Dec 16, 2015

OPCW
I am reading this summary of the New York Times article by Finian Cunningham: What Cunningham is saying, and what I also inferred from between the lines, is that the Syrian government has admitted to the OPCW that is has lost control of one or more of its chemical weapons storage sites. The implication is that ISIL / al-Nusra Front / Liwa al-Islam now has access to unlimited supplies of sarin, far more than would be needed for the Ghouta CW attack. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 22:55, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
 * West toxic lie on Syria exposed – Finian Cunningham, PressTV, October 17, 2013


 * Well, it has turned out quickly that most of the stocks are of unweaponized "precursors" which might rot in some underground facilities the "rebels" might not have access to even when they hang around on the airfield on the surface ... so maybe it's not that dramatic, but I also have a hard time imagining how the process of visiting those sites should function. --CE (talk) 23:15, 17 October 2013 (UTC)


 * November 2013:
 * Syrian chemical weapons likely to be destroyed abroad - Russia – RT, November 01, 2013
 * ''OPCW experts have so far visited 21 out of 23 chemical weapons sites across Syria. The two remaining facilities are currently too dangerous to visit due to military action between government forces and Islamist rebels.
 * ''According to the watchdog, chemical equipment from the unvisited facilities was moved to sites where the inspections were performed.

RT's Oksana Boyko interviews Sigrid Kaag, the former (because of successful result against all odds) head of the UN-OPCW mission for the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons. Now that's an impressive person. Some insights into behind-the-scenes diplomacy that counters the daily doom & gloom in the usual reporting about geopolitics. --CE (talk) 22:32, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
 * November 2014:

September 2014

 * Dozens of Daesh-ISIS terrorists killed while they were filling rockets with chlorine gas – Syrian Free Press, 20 Sept 2014
 * ''Dozens of terrorists of Daesh-ISIS mercenary gangs were killed this week, on Tuesday 16/9, near Baghdad when a rocket whose warhead they were filling with chlorine gas exploded.
 * ''An Iraqi security source said that seven more terrorists were injured in the incident, which occurred near the town of al-Dhuluiya, about 90 km north of Baghdad.
 * ''In Al-Dhuluiya also four members of the Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen suffered symptoms of asphyxiation after inhaling chlorine gas released by two improvised explosive devices.


 * Enemy at the gates: Turkish war machine watches ISIS battle Kurds for Kobani – RT, Oct 13, 2014
 * Mustard gas of chlorine?

2015

 * Images back claims of ISIS chemical weapons attack in Iraq - CBC News, Sep 12, 2015
 * Islamic State using chemical weapons in Iraq & Syria – report - RT, 11 Sep, 2015
 * Украинские специалисты производят химоружие для ИГ на территории Турции (Ukrainian specialists produce chemical weapons for the IS in Turkey) - pravosudija.net, September 2015
 * ISIS militants in Iraq, Syria have WMD components, Lavrov warns UN Security Council - RT, 30 Sep, 2015
 * Daesh Uses Chemical Weapons in Syria With 'Very High' Probability - Moscow - Sputnik, January 5, 2016

2016

 * This is Where Syrian Rebels Obtain Chemical Weapons - Sputnik, November 12, 2016

Islamic State

 * Testing Shows Islamic State Used Chemical Weapons During August 2015 — U.S. military field test - David Alexander, August 21, 2015
 * Media reported capture of stocks of sarin by IS militants (Rus.), google translate (Eng.), TV Zvezda, December 19, 2015 (unverified)
 * Quoting RT-Arabic interview of "Ahmed Gaddafi", apparently  Ahmed Gaddafi al-Dam, as another  Ahmed Gaddafi, also a cousin of Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in 2011. The article is not seen on front pages of RT-Arabic at the time of writing, but appeared on Rusvesna and TV Zvezda (the latter a Russian nationwide TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to Wikipedia).
 * ''"IS managed to find in the desert several secret underground storages, where chemical weapons were still held. Unfortunately, the warehouses were not properly protected," - he told reporters. According to him, the militants trafficked stolen gas to the north of Libya and sold it. "I know of two cases of theft of sarin, which I was told my sources in Tripoli. In the first case we are talking about seven tanks with sarin, in the second - five ", - said Ahmed al-Gaddafi.
 * Coalition planes destroy IS chemical factory near Mosul - AFP, September 13, 2016
 * ''The production center -- a converted pharmaceutical plant complex -- likely made chlorine or mustard gas, said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

Chlorine

 * With Friends Like These: US Stalls Kurdish Offensive Against Daesh in Iraq - ''Sputnik, February 12, 2016
 * ''Sometime after the interview, d’Aymée also sent word that Daesh had deployed chemical weapons against his unit.
 * ''"Daesh started shelling us with makeshift chlorine shells, and we only have medical masks for protection,” he wrote. “The medics were working all night. I hope that answers your question about the use of chemical weapons by Daesh."

Mustard gas

 * Apr 5, 2016. Reports (quoting Sky News Arabia) that IS used mustard gas in Deir ez-Zor against the Syrian Army

Attacking Europe?

 * British Minister claims ISIS planning chemical attack in the UK - Al Masdar News, January 1, 2017
 * ''“The ambition of … Daesh (ISIS) is definitely mass-casualty attacks. They want to harm as many people as possible and terrorize as many people as possible,” Security Minister Ben Wallace emphasized in an interview published Sunday by the UK-based Sunday Times. “They have no moral objection to using chemical weapons against populations, and if they could, they would in this country. The casualty figures that could be involved would be everybody’s worst fear,” the minister noted. “We have certainly seen reports of them using it in Syria and Iraq [and] we have certainly seen aspirations for it in Europe.”