MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has reliable information that accusations the Syrian army recently used poison gas are false, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
“Accusations that the Syrian Army allegedly used poisonous chemical gases continue to be fabricated. According to reliable information the Russian side has, such allegations are false,” the ministry said.
Media reports have claimed that at least two people were killed and about a hundred injured in a chlorine attack on the militant-held village of Kafr Zeita in Syria’s Hama province in mid-April.
The Syrian government implicated an al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, al-Nusra Front, in the attack. Opposition groups claimed, however, that government planes had bombed the town with explosive barrels that produced thick smoke that, causing suffocation and poisoning.
Bashar Jafari, the Syrian envoy to the UN, earlier this week said reports accusing the Syrian government of a chemical weapons attack are aimed at disrupting the planned elections in the country, due on June 3.
"As far as the Syrian government is concerned, according to the government information, the chlorine gas was not used by the Syrian army. We don't use this kind of stuff," he said. "If it was used it would be used by the terrorist groups."
The reported chlorine attack was discussed at a closed session of the UN Security Council Wednesday.
The civil war in Syria broke out following unrest that swept the Arab world three years ago, called the Arab Spring. According to United Nations’ estimates, over 130,000 people have died in the conflict, which has seen fierce battles between the Syrian army and Islamist militants, including foreign mercenaries and al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.
