Gas in Aleppo stammte von Assad

Eigentlich war es zu erwarten: Nein, nicht irgendwelche Rebellen haben kürzlich Giftgas in Aleppo eingesetzt, wie empört russische und syrischen Seiten meldeten (und fast alle westliche Medien übernahmen diese Darstellung), sondern es war offenbar einmal mehr das Assad Regime. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt jedenfalls eine Untersuchung des Weißen Hauses.

Und damit wäre einmal mehr bestätigt, dass es nur zwei Akteure in Syrien gibt, die Gas gegen Zivilisten einsetzen: Das Assad Regime und der Islamische Staat.

Since Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad began gassing his people half a decade ago, his regime and its Russian enablers have tried to persuade credulous observers that the rebels were doing it to themselves. Now there is new evidence that, last month, the Syrian regime did exactly what it accuses the rebels of doing.

A new White House statement on the incident, scheduled for today, will say a so-called chlorine attack on Nov. 24 was essentially a false-flag operation.

The statement, which reflects the view of U.S. intelligence agencies and was shared with me before its release, says it was not a chlorine gas attack at all, but rather tear gas. What’s more, the U.S. now has “credible information that pro-regime forces” probably used it against Syrian civilians in northwestern Aleppo. It says they are “blaming the attack on opposition and extremist groups to undermine confidence in the ceasefire in Idlib.”

One piece of evidence the assessment cites, ironically, is the consistent narrative about the attack from Russian and Syrian media outlets: Reports agreed that chlorine-filled rockets or mortars against Syrian military personnel were fired by rebels from Idlib. In the past, after admittedly more serious chemical weapons attacks, it took more time for a consistent media narrative to emerge.