[STREAM.WSJ] Shortly before the U.S. disclosed intelligence purporting to show Syria's government used chemical weapons last week, Turkey published details which Ankara said left "no doubt" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces were responsible for a poison gas attack that killed hundreds of people in a Damascus suburb.
| The attack was carried out from two separate locations and involved 15 to 20 chemical warheads. The warheads were fired by the 155th Missile Brigade in Qutayfa, 35 km north of Damascus and the 4th Armored Division in Qasyoun Mountain |
The news item was released on Turkey's state news agency, Anadolu, shortly after foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Turkey had proof of Damascus' culpability. The report, which read like a diplomatic cable and could not be independently verified, detailed the precise time, location and weapons used in the attack, as well as the Syrian brigade which launched it.
According to the report, which you can read here, the attack was carried out from two separate locations and involved 15 to 20 chemical warheads. The warheads were fired by the 155th Missile Brigade in Qutayfa, 35 km north of Damascus and the 4th Armored Division in Qasyoun Mountain, also north of the capital, the news item said.
"From our point of view, totally based on our national intelligence and assessments by our national experts ... there is no doubt that the regime is responsible," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara, shortly before the disclosure.
The report came as Washington planned to release an unclassified version of its intelligence assessment of the chemical weapons attack, according to U.S. officials. The push for a quick international strike to punish Syria for what the U.S. said was a chemical-weapons attack appeared in disarray on Thursday, after British lawmakers defeated a government motion in support of military action. |