DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities introduced on Wednesday (Jul 15) the arrest of a former officer they are saying was a chemical weapons specialist accountable for sarin gasoline depots and chemical weapons manufacturing throughout ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s period.
Since Assad’s fall in December 2024, authorities have arrested dozens of individuals they are saying dedicated crimes throughout the nation’s 13-year civil battle, and began trials in April.
The inside ministry mentioned safety forces had arrested colonel Ahmed Habib Ali, calling him “a chemical weapons professional”.
It additionally mentioned he “was liable for sarin gasoline storage services and chemical manufacturing inside Unit 417”, a key chemical weapons storage facility close to the capital, Damascus.
In accordance with the ministry, Ali was “one of many officers who supervised the manufacture of about 20 bombs loaded with sarin gasoline, every weighing 250kg, which have been utilized in assaults focusing on Syrian cities and cities in 2013 and 2017”.
Within the first and deadliest occasion in August 2013, the military was accused of utilizing chemical weapons to focus on areas then underneath insurgent management, killing greater than 1,400 males, ladies and youngsters, in keeping with US intelligence and rights teams.
With Syria on the top of its civil battle, the Assad authorities agreed at hand over its chemical arsenal in an effort to avert US strikes.
Between 2014 and 2017, Damascus was accused of launching 4 additional assaults on cities managed by opposition factions, utilizing sarin and chlorine gasoline.
Ali’s arrest comes after Syria was reinstated into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) final week.
The OPCW had stripped Syria of its voting rights in 2021 after discovering its air power had used sarin and chlorine gasoline by itself individuals.
In April, Syria’s judiciary started a collection of public trials for former officers on varied fees, a few of which quantity to battle crimes dedicated after the outbreak of common protests in 2011, which have been violently suppressed by the authorities.
