Russia Confirms Use of Chemicals by Terrorists in Syria

Moscow, Nov 11 (Prensa Latina) The Russian Ministry of Defense (MinDef) has confirmed the use of chemical substances by terrorist groups in the Syrian city of Aleppo, after conducting laboratory tests on launched projectiles.

The officers at the Center for Radioactive and Chemical Defense of the Russian Armed Forces have found proof that chemical substances were used in neighborhood 1070, in south-western Aleppo, said MinDef spokesperson Igor Konashenkov.

The spokesman said that the terrorists used mortar shells laced with chlorine and white phosphorus, whose use has been banned since 1993 by the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The projectiles were launched by extremist groups from the eastern area of the city, targeting civilians and soldiers, some of whom arrived at hospital with the symptoms of the these substances.

Konashenkov said that the specialists at the Russian MinDef detected non-detonated projectiles on the ground, from which they took samples.

An analysis in a mobile laboratory helped confirm that the substances were chlorine and white phosphorus, said the Russian general.

A deeper test of the projectiles found in Aleppo will be carried out in the laboratory at a chemical defense scientific center, informed the spokesman.

Some six thousand members of armed formations, mostly subordinate to the terrorist group Jabhad Fatah As Sham, formerly Al-Nusra, and concentrated in the eastern zone of Aleppo, are taking desperate action to occupy other parts of the city.