Qatari Officers Traced in Syria Chemical Attack

A new report implicated two Qatari officers for a March 13 chemical attack in the Northwestern Syrian province of Aleppo.
The Sunday report by the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar said Qatari officers Saeid al Hajeri and Faleh bin khalid al Tamimi sneaked chemical materials through the Turkish border into Syria, where they were used by militants to launch a deadly attack on Aleppo’s Khan al-Assal district.

The report adds that details of the case have been handed over to the Russian intelligence agency.

Damascus called for an international probe into the attack that killed over two dozen Syrians, Alalam reported.

This came as some western states accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against foreign-backed militants operating in the country.

French officials claimed on June 4 that they were in possession of “evidence,” based on laboratory tests that proved nerve gas Sarin had been used by the government forces in Syria.

Damascus strongly rejected the claim as “lies,” saying that the militants have used chemical weapons on several occasions, including the attack in the region of Khan al-Assal.

On Saturday, a report revealed that Libyan rebels are sending their rebellion arms to militants in Syria with the help of Qatar.

As the United States and its western allies move toward providing lethal aid to militants in Syria, “secretive transfers give insight into an unregistered arms pipeline that is difficult to monitor or control,” the New York Times wrote in an article on Friday.

Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s weapons are sent on ships or Qatar Air Force flights to a network of intelligence agencies and Syrian opposition leaders in Turkey.

From there, militants distribute the arms.

Extremist fighters, some of them aligned with al-Qaeda, have the money to buy the newly arrived stock, and many rebels are willing to sell.

Qatari C-17 cargo aircraft have made at least three stops in Libya this year — including flights from Mitiga airport in Tripoli on Jan. 15 and Feb. 1, and another that departed Benghazi on April 16, according to flight data provided by an aviation official in the region.

The planes returned to al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The cargo was then flown to Ankara, Turkey, along with other weapons and equipment that the Qataris had been gathering for the rebels, officials and rebels said.

Evidence gathered in Syria, along with flight-control data and interviews with militia members, smugglers, rebels, analysts and officials in several countries, offers a profile of a complex and active multinational effort, financed largely by Qatar, to transport arms from Libya to Syria’s opposition fighters.

The movements from Libya complement the airlift that has variously used Saudi, Jordanian and Qatari military cargo planes to funnel military equipment and weapons, including from Croatia, to the outgunned militants.

Also on Saturday, a report said that Syria lodged an official complaint with the United Nations that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and France are “supporting rebels” and “destabilizing” the region, by financing, training and arming the opposition forces.

Meantime, Lebanon, concerned about the fighting in country spilling over to its territory, fired off a similar complaint to the UN Security Council earlier this week, RT reported.

On Wednesday, the Lebanese army arrested a Jordanian citizen in Baalbek town in the Beqaa Valley who coordinated dispatch of arms by Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the terrorist groups in Syria.