-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 19, 2007 9:05:26 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Israeli Strike on Syria Targeted Iran-Assisted Chemical
Warfare Lab
Syria blast 'linked to chemical weapons': report
Wed Sep 19, 7:13 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070919/wl_mideast_afp/
syriairanmilitarymissiles_070919111343
LONDON (AFP) - Iranian engineers were among those killed in a blast
at a secret Syrian military installation two months ago, defence
group Jane's said Wednesday after claiming that the base was being
used to develop chemical weapons.
The July 26 explosion in Aleppo, northern Syria, was reported at
the time. The official Sana news agency said 15 Syrian military
personnel were killed and 50 people were injured, most of them
slightly from flying glass.
The agency said only that "very explosive products" blew up after
fire broke out at the facility and that the blaze was not an act of
sabotage.
But in the September 26 edition of Jane's Defence Weekly, Syrian
defence sources were quoted as saying the explosion happened during
tests to weaponise a Scud C missile with mustard gas, which is
banned under international law.
Fuel caught fire in a missile production laboratory and "dispersed
chemical agents (including VX and Sarin nerve agents and mustard
blister agent) across the storage facility and outside.
"Other Iranian engineers were seriously injured with chemical burns
to exposed body parts not protected by safety overalls," the
publication quoted the sources as saying.
Among the dead were "dozens" of Iranian missile weaponisation
engineers, it added.
The claims come as North Korea denied reports it was helping Syria
develop nuclear weapons and intense speculation that a recent
Israeli air raid on Syria may have targeted a joint nuclear project.
Jane's said the regime in Damascus has since imposed a media black-
out on the blast and had "destroyed" evidence that base was being
used as a missile production site with Iranian help.
It also questioned the government's claim that the explosion
occurred because of a sudden rise in the ambient air temperature
that caused a chemical reaction of sensitive and highly volatile
substances.
One of its sources described the explanation as "implausible"
because the blast happened at about 4:30 am, two hours before
sunrise when temperatures were cool.
The article also quoted Syrian opposition sources as noting that
vehicles destined for car bomb attacks in Iraq are prepared at the
same facility under the supervision of Syrian intelligence and the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Jane's assessed that the incident confirmed information that the
two countries have been involved in developing chemical weapons for
more than two years under a strategic co-operation agreement.
It said Iran helped Syria in the planning, establishment and
management of five facilities designed to develop chemical weapons
on an industrial scale.
An Iranian chemical manufacturer, whose identity Jane's said it
knows and with connections to the Islamic republic's defence
industry, and a Syrian firm with links to the military have made a
number of deals since 2004.
One of Jane's sources said they involved the importation of
"hundreds of tonnes of sodium sulphide, hydrochloric acid and
ethylene glycol-MEG from Iran" which can be used to produce mustard
gas and Sarin.
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