Was in #EastGhouta today, 25 meters from a battlefront btwn Shifouniyeh & Misraba, areas recently liberated from militants. Western journalists flock to humanitarian corridor in north, but not a single one visited this makeshift chemical lab discovered by the SAA yesterday.
With the US threatening direct attacks on #Syria because of alleged chemical weapons use, and the Russians & Syrians claiming militants are using CWs to provoke a US attack...you would think western journalists would be all over this terrorist-run lab - even if to debunk it.
I couldn't even hazard a guess at what was cooking in this terrorist-run lab in #EastGhouta. This stuff needs to be tested by independent experts, but the int'l community isn't interested. You'd think they'd want a look before Trump starts a war over fake WMDs.
SAA says they tested these canisters immediately & found traces of chlorine. Chlorine weapons were first used in Aleppo around 2013. At the time, western-backed terrorists had taken control of #Syria's only chlorine manufacturing plant, based in E. Aleppo and co-owned by Saudis.
Without a doubt, something was being manufactured in this terrorist-held lab. The SAA only just liberated this area in the past days - couldn't have moved in this much diverse equipment, much of it coated in a thick layer of untouched dust.
Whatever chemicals were being manufactured in this lab, were likely created for use in warfare. To be delivered in these? There were several piles of these projectiles dumped in corners of the facility. #EastGhouta
So this is interesting. Hard to miss the one new-ish piece of equipment inside the terrorist lab - it's a US-made air or gas compressor of some sort. A cursory Google search immediately pulled up several tenders for this device to Saudi Arabia in 2015. 1/2
The Saudis, btw, are the main sponsors of Jaysh al-Islam - one of the main terrorist groups inside #EastGhouta, and per the photo below, the likely occupants of the lab. Saudis have been caught shipping foreign-bought equipment/arms to Syrian terrorists during this war. 2/2
Another notable discovery during my #EastGhouta trip was the acres upon acres of crops available for the picking. Starvation siege? Not when you can trip over wheat, chickpeas, fool beans, green peas, olive trees, etc every few steps:
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