The US Department of State has confirmed for the first time that terrorists active in the Syrian province of Idlib use chemical weapons, Russia's Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.
While commenting on a statement issued by the US Department of State, he said that the document "provides details about a terror group named Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, affiliated with Jabhat al-Nusra, which is active in this province and uses light and heavy weapons, improvised explosive devices and chemical weapons."
"I would like to point out that that the Department of State has for the first time officially acknowledged that terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra not only have but also - I would like to stress that - use chemical weapons in this part of Syria in order to carry out terrorist attacks - a thing that we have many times many times warned against and talked about at various levels," Konashenkov said.
The Russian general pointed out that only one chemical weapons incident had been recorded in the Idlib province, which took place in Khan Shaykhun and was blamed on the Syrian government forces by the US. "While the militants who actually carried out that attack turned out to be members of Jabhat al-Nusra - as the US Department of State eventually figured out - but were previously called the ‘moderate opposition’," TASS cited Konashenkov as saying.
"But now, the US State Department’s statement has put everything in place - the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which is active in Idlib, not only has but also uses chemical weapons against civilians," the spokesman stressed.
He also stressed that the US allegations about an Idlib bombing are untrue as Russia’s Aerospace Forces never target populated localities.
