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State Department Aware of Reports US, UK Supplied Toxic Agents to Syrian Rebels

© AP Photo / Luis M. AlvarezThe State Department in Washington
The State Department in Washington - Sputnik International
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The US Department of State is aware of reports about toxic agents used in Syria, a department official told Sputnik on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad earlier in the day accused US and UK-based companies of supplying toxic agents to terrorists, adding that CS and CN substances, allegedly produced by NonLethal Technologies and Chemring Defence, were found in Aleppo and Damascus.

"We have seen these reports. Let’s be clear, we have long expressed our strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons. [Its] use by any party in Syria would violate international standards and norms," the official said.

The official provided no additional comments on the companies, but reiterated the US position that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible in previous instances of chemical weapons use.

A picture taken on April 4, 2017 shows destruction at a hospital in Khan Shaykhun in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, following a suspected toxic gas attack. - Sputnik International
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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the fact that the United States and the United Kingdom could have supplied toxic agents to militants in Syria is "beyond understanding."

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in June that its fact-finding mission confirmed that man-made chemical sarin, a gas used as a chemical weapon, was used in an attack on Khan Shaikhoun in Idlib in early April, but did not determine who was responsible.

The US-backed militias blamed the use of chemical weapons on the Syrian government, despite Syrian President Assad told Sputnik following the attack in April that there was no chemical weapons  in Idlib.

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