Rebel possession of chemical weapons

Rebel CW possession?
We should start a dedicated page on rebel possession of chemical weapons. Here is one claim, previously overlooked: Analyzed in more detail here: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 03:34, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
 * حقيقة من يستخدم الغازات الكيماوية / إعتراف واضح بإستخدام الجيش الحر هذه الغازات (The fact of the uses of chemical gases / clear recognition using the army free of these gases) – SyriaTube, 07/10/2013
 * Evidence: Syria gas attack work of U.S. allies – WND, August 27, 2013

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

 * 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.”


 * Turkey indicts 11 linked with Syria militants caught with sarin gas – PressTV, Sep 14, 2013
 * Syria Rebels Ordered 10 Tons of Sarin Nerve Agent in Turkey – FNA, September 14th, 2013

September 2013

 * 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

November 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.

From Facebook
Some feedback on Facebook:
 * https://www.facebook.com/hands.off.syria2/posts/520709171348319?comment_id=53062662&offset=0&total_comments=1

Evidence that may be useful for your future posts. Two sources of chemical weapons are used by rebels in Syria.
 * Andy Yip:


 * Source 1:
 * 1) Turkey confirms and identified the Al-Qaeda sarin gas ring in Syria.
 * 2) * http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/09/15/turkey-confirms-syrian-rebels-with-al-qaida-ties-sought-chemical-weapons/
 * 3) This video shows Al-Qaeda linked Chemical Weapon attack with possible foreign support in behind. It shows the chemical lab in a captured rebel compound.
 * 4) * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGz_LCGg2TI
 * 5) The UN inspectors were requested to check out chemical weapons in rebels' hands back in May 2013.
 * 6) * http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uns-carla-del-ponte-says-there-is-evidence-rebels-may-have-used-sarin-in-syria-8604920.html..
 * 7) The videos of launching the same blue gas containers on the rockets by rebels.
 * 8) * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I_WsMKjH6Q
 * 9) * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JT6cIOgfoU


 * Source 2:


 * 1) On 16 Dec 2012, Washington Post reported that rebels who seized the Sheik Suleiman military base near Aleppo, where research on chemical weapons had been conducted. Rebels are also closing in on another base near Aleppo, known as Safirah, which has served as a major production center for such munitions.
 * 2) * http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-16/world/35864232_1_chemical-weapons-chemical-arms-free-syrian-army
 * 3) On 03 Aug 2013, AFP reported that the rebels captured government weapon depot with ground to ground missiles.
 * 4) * http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4413122,00.html.
 * 5) On 08 Aug 2013, there are reports that rebels have the capacity of firing captured military grade (not homemade) ground-to-ground missile system from their looting of weapon depots.
 * 6) * http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/08/08/syrian-rebels-capture-11-villages-near-assads-hometown-alawite-heartland/

In this 2nd scenario, There is a high possibility of Al-Qaeda linked rebels looting Syrian army weapon, deploying the chemical weapon with captured ground to ground rockets in order to blame the Syrian government.

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?

-- Petri Krohn (talk) 19:59, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Gas in Iraq
This article claims that there were tons of old chemical weapons in Iraq. If true, this might be a possible source too.
 * American Forces Found 5,000 Chemical Weapons In Iraq—Just Not the Ones the Bush Administration Claimed Were There

-- Baldur (talk) 14:19, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

This NY Times article appear related. At least those guys presumably use reliable sources.--Resup (talk) 15:46, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

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